Toasted Oats
by asteroidpie
Summary: Sora, Riku and Kairi receive a surprising letter from their beloved king. A girl, who is caught up in the chaos, ventures into a portal to another world, as her own gives into the darkness. Leaving her no home to return to, who will she approach for help?
1. Scattered Embers

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Axel, or any of the characters of Kingdom Hearts, which belongs to Square Enix; I do not own any of the elements belonging to Disney, as well._**

**Well, this is my first attempt at posting on here (The action will start in the next chapter, which I am currently starting), so enjoy at the very least!**

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**~1~**

Chapter one

Laura Letterwood lay stomach-down on her bed, frustrated at the flustered pile of Algebra homework before her. After 3 solid hours of studying for the test the next day, the equations seemed far from comprehendible. She let out an exasperated sigh, and flipped over onto her stomach. Stretching her arms and legs out as far as possible, her blackberry phone vibrates next to her side. Feeling a rush of momentary relief from her tortuous study, she rolls over to pick it up.

"Oh, Shelagh, how you amuse me..." she mumbles, lips curling to a small grin as she reads the 'distress message' her dear friend sent to her:

"_Lorie, I am on my last legs. University-level Algebra is definitely a torture device. Got it all memorized, champ? I can feel it curdling my fluids as I type...ahhhhh! Anyhow, I'm back to my slow, painful death. Cheers and see you tomorrow love! xo." _

Laura seemed attached to her phone. It was one of those necessities that she felt she couldn't live without. From keeping in touch with friends (new and old) to making plans, and even research, the Blackberry never left her side. Noticing how caught up in the small device she really was, she glanced painfully over to the study notes laying beside her.

She gave it a cold, death-sentence-like stare. "Screw that, all right." she tells herself triumphantly, neatly putting away the notes stuffing the many accursed pages into her math binder and quickly putting it into her schoolbag. "Glad that's over with. It's not like it would help me or anything...Math is a lost cause!" she sighs as she flops back onto her bed.

* * *

Her stepfather hadn't returned from the car dealership and she began to wonder what was taking so long. It had been, incidentally, 3 hours since he had left. Laura always got after her dad for ever taking too long away from the "base" ever since her mother had gone missing where she used to live in Oshawa, Ontario. The investigators hadn't found her mother's body until a year later, in a swamp some 200km away.

There were significant signs of suicide.

It's been 7 years since the confirmation and funeral of her mother, yet she had come to terms with what had happened. However, she did not, and never would, come to terms with how it had happened.

Her birthfather was abusive and a serious control-freak, insulting and smacking Laura occasionally and constantly mentally and physically abusing her mother. One day, the father had disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again. Now her stepfather, Adam Letterwood, had replaced her old name, Eden, with his own, Letterwood, just incase her real father was still out there.

Adam was a confident, safe young man of only 31. she treated him as her stepfather, when really all he was close friend to her and her mother.

He really did replace the broken image of a father that Laura had pictured for many years, which made Laura worry because she did not like to stray from him for too long. Even being 17, Laura found it hard to be on her own just yet.

As she made her way down the short hall of their larger-than-average apartment in Manhattan, NY, she stretched her arms as far as she possibly could, yawning long and audibly.

Her feet lead her into the kitchen, which smelled strongly of a slow-simmering Dutch oven full of chili. The rich aroma of spices filled her sinuses as she opened the lid. Closing it, her attention is drawn quickly from the chili on the stove to the clock on the wall. It read almost 6 'o' clock.

'News time.' she thought as she quickly grabbed a bowl of the chili that was simmering and sat down on the couch. The TV was coincidentally already on the news channel, and thus began her news-watching session.

For the past little while she had been constantly watching the news, due to her fascination in the latest news discoveries: Foreign objects found scattered all over the continents of Oceania and Iceland, as well as the northern islands of Nunavut and the North-west Territories.

Laura sat still on the couch, listening intently. It was not often that this phenomenon did occur, especially at school, where attention to her schoolwork was seldom an option for her.

The anchors began to speak of the war in the middle east, the famines in certain limited countries and the Christmas preparations in Manhattan. "So far, so boring..." she remarks as she piles a large spoonful of chili into her mouth. Laura was very slim, but it was due to her high metabolism.

She needed all the energy she could handle, which lead to her eating two average Manhattan teenagers' worth of food a day. After a bunch of "rambling (as she thought of it) from the anchors, they finally got to the weekly updates on paranormal findings. The news crew's travel anchor, Mary Anderson, began her report on the latest find:

_"Joggers have found evidence of what seems to be some sort of foreign piece of material earlier this week near Turtle Pond in Central park..."_

'Hold up…In Manhattan?!' She thought aloud to herself, completely sucked into the news report. She turned up the volume as Meg kept taking:

_"Now in possession of some very capable scientists conducting examinations in an Unnamed laboratory, it is confirmed that the small shard of material is beyond any recorded substance found currently on this earth. Local Scientist James MacLeigh has more information on this latest discovery." _

"This...this is amazing!" Laura thought aloud to herself again, completely intrigued in what this news discovery was telling her. 'Now, the substances are being found all throughout the world...!' she thought, excited. The scientist came onto the television, just as eager as Laura.

James_: "Hello Mary."_

Mary:_ "Hello James, could you tell us about this new breakthrough?"_

James:_ "We've examined it, and like we've said before, it is an unknown substance. The substance is of a bright reddish orange hue, and radiates a harmless, mysterious energy."_

Mary:_ "That's very interesting. Do you know how it's just seemed to have appeared from nowhere?"_

James:_ "We currently have no understanding of where it's from, or how it even got here. There is no evidence of it falling into our atmosphere. It's almost like it just...appeared out of nowhere, as hard as that is to believe...-" _

"Laura, I'm home!" Adam called as he came into the apartment. A feeling of relief washed over her as she was safe with her stepfather. "Hi Adam!" she called back.

_-Click- _went the television as Laura turned it off. Her mind was full of ideas, theories and possibilities. 'What if she went down there herself and investigated further? Would she find anything?' her thoughts were interrupted as her father waved his hand in front of her face. "Laura, hellooo. Anyone there?" he joked as she snapped out of the conversation in her head. "Oh yeah. Sorry. Caught up in the news." she explains sheepishly. He sits down on the couch beside her.

"Man, am I EVER pooped. Remind me not to fall asleep at the wheel. It brings bad consequences." he groaned as he seemed to melt onto the worked in leather couch. Laura laughed. "Sure thing, daddio." He laughed a bit as well, and kicked off his Nike sneakers onto the TV room floor.

"Actually, don't let me drive after that long of a day at work. Too many phone calls and paperwork equals so little energy...Phew." he continued, sighing. Laura remembered the news just then. "So you know the news updates about the foreign material being found throughout the world lately?" she asked perkily. He removed his forearm from where it had been resting over his hazel eyes. "Yeah, what about them?" he replied. "Well, they found a larger SHARD of foreign material RIGHT HERE in Central Park!! We're only a few blocks away, it's incredible! I want to go down there first thing after school tomorrow and check things out!" Laura exclaimed, unraveling all of her excitement on the poor tired man.

He chuckles, exhausted. "Well," he began, making her nervous at what his reaction could be, "Sounds like a plan, champ," he continued. Laura sighed in happiness. "But, I can imagine that they'll have the area that the discovery was made all cordoned off, so maybe don't get in anybody's way, got it?" he replied, approving of her research.

Laura's face beamed, absolutely ecstatic. "Awesome! Amazing! Thanks Adam!" she giggles, scuffing his hair and walking off to her room. He grins and fixes his shaggy brown hair. "It's getting pretty late so maybe you should start getting ready to hit the hay, what do you think?" Adam suggested to her, contemplating going to bed soon himself after grabbing a bowl of hard-earned chili. "Sure thing, dad, I'll need the sleep for tomorrow's Algebra test. I'll need it..." she muttered the last part to herself.

All she could hear was a muffled "Good night!" from Adam's chili-filled mouth. That's what she liked about Adam. He didn't get on her back for things she would be otherwise stressing about more if he would have been on her back. It showed Laura that he had confidence in her, something her birth parents lacked. To her, Adam was the only person she really thought of as truly 'caring'.

* * *

As she got into bed later on that evening after getting washed, she found it hard to calm down to rest. All of the equations she needed to memorize for tomorrow mixed in with all of her excitement over the news report refused to let her fall asleep. Laura stared at her ceiling, reflecting over and over again about all of the random findings of the foreign substance. How could they have slipped under the radar as they entered the atmosphere?

Did they even actually fall into the atmosphere?

~*~*~*~*~*~*


	2. Disturbances

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or ideas of Kingdom Hearts, which belong to Square Enix. **

**(A/N): Okay, chapter two is here. Enjoy! **

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Chapter 2: Disturbances

It was no more than 10 'o clock in the evening when it began to rain in a faded, forgotten city. The billboard screens on top of the towering, (almost) lifeless skyscrapers flickered as they struggled to stay lit. This, along with the faded glow of some long gone entity of light in the sky, was all that kept the city in contact with a decent amount of light. It scarcely allowed one to see the road they set foot on, let alone examine their surroundings. The city, seemingly soaked in a sinister ink, set about an uneasy feeling for anyone who still grasped some sense of "light over darkness".  
For the locals, however, this concept brought about laughter. They knew nothing else but the darkness, and so they called this place home.

A young man, no more than 19 entered a small tavern after a long day of work. As he strutted through the dingy, darkened, yellow glass-paned doors, the local tavern-goers shot him a look that would even make an executioner's neck hairs raise. But this didn't faze him, not even a little. He had not even so much as flinched as he walked to the bar, setting his bones on the stool farthest away from everyone else.

His frame was somewhat bony, but absolutely toned. His head was covered by a black hood, belonging to his concealing black leather trench coat. It fell to his mid calf, where one could scarcely see the equally as dark knee-high boots, trimmed with silver. The tight fit of the jacket complimented his every feature. From near his collarbone hung long metal tassel-like ornaments from small chains. Another necklace-like arrangement of silver rings travelled from one tassel chain to the other.

The bartender gradually made his way over to the young man as a slug crawls across a log. "Why, hello there, sonny. What can I do ya for tonight?" he asks in a dark tone, words slithering slowly like a snake. The bartender's speech was just as sluggish as his movement.

The young man shifted in his stool. "Jack Daniel's," the young man almost demanded, picking up a dusty toothpick from the table. He flipped it through his fingers back and forth. "On the rocks… Got it memorized?" he continued to order as the toothpick between his thumb and index combusted, leaving a small amount of ash on the counter he leaned on. The bartender examined the face of the young man, shrouded and concealed by his hood.

The bartender's dry mouth slowly dragged across his face, leaving a smirk that would make anyone else leave on the spot. "Daring tonight, eh 'pard'?" he sneered, turning to the ancient-looking bottle on the wall. The young man frowned under his hood, as he could practically hear the mildew on the shelf complaining, trying to keep the bottle of liquor (_only the bottle itself knew how long it's been there_) firmly placed onto it as the bartender pried it off. 'Okay…bad choice, probably.' He thought to himself as he drummed the counter with his fingers.

Of course, this brought amusement to the bartender, as well as the regulars who sat nearby.

Ice in, liquor almost swimming in the dusty glass, the bartender firmly placed it down in front of the hooded young man. "Daniel's, on the rocks. Enjoy..." the bartenders words practically slipped past his lips, just as he slipped out of the hooded young man's sight.

The young man picked up his drink, swishing the liquid round and round in the glass, and grimaced. "Man, I've gotta find a new joint. This is pathetic..." he thought aloud, his voice sounding like a warm summer breeze that contrasted the entire region in which he dwelled. A drunken, faded silhouette of a man reared their head towards him. "Don't like it ; leave, pretty boy." he snarled, giving him a glazed glare.

The young man shrugged, and continued to swirl the drink around in his hand. This seemed to agitate the drunkard. "Got a problem with it, pretty boy? Too dusty, eh... I'd be leaving... if I were you. Order scum like you doesn't deserve to... sit your cursed bones down in this," the drunken man swayed for a second, gripping the bar counter for support. "...lovely spot." The young man gripped his drink tight, stopping his swishing.

The ice cubes clanged the glass as the movement came to a halt. "Keep talking, buddy. I'm completely _flattered_. Keep talking." he sneered under his breath, setting the glass promptly down and cracking his knuckles. This set the drunkard off. "Crackin' them weak little bones, eh?" he ridiculed and looked back to the other drunkards behind him. The tavern-goers around them began to give a low, dark chuckle.

"Poor little black-hood's got himself in a little rut, eh boys?" the drunkard jokes, leaning on the counter once again for support. The young man gained mumbles and snarled remarks from the many drunken men around him. He stopped cracking his knuckles, and set his left hand onto the counter. Soon after, the ice cubes in his glass began to melt, his drink savagely bubbling. In a few seconds the drunkard's beer began to froth, overflowing his glass in a steamy fit, as well as many other drinks nearby.

The young man turned to the taunting man, staring into his glazed eyes. "Aren't you just the life of the house tonight? Thing is," the cloaked man began, shifting towards the drunkard, so his mouth was inches away from his ear, "I can easily undo that." He threatened, using the man's shoulder as support as he got off the bar stool, making him cry out in sheer agony.

The young man's leather-gloved hand had burned a hand print through the grimy man's clothing, and left a hefty second degree burn that sizzled disturbingly. The man fell to the ground, gripping his burned shoulder in agony.

The tavern-goers began to get rowdy. "Who do you think you are, buddy?" another drunkard slurred in anger, getting up to face the hooded figure who was now getting irritated. "I'm someone you don't want to be messing with, pal. Sit back down." He threatens ominously, beginning to walk out of the tavern. His interest was completely spent.

"I don't think so!" the drunkard shouted after him, throwing a beer bottle directly at the back of the young man's hood. To the drunkard's horror, it passed right through his head, smashing against an unsuspecting victim, rendering him unconscious. "Crossed the line, man," he warned for the last time, turning to face this stupefied perpetrator. "Now you get to witness the show first hand…" He grinned under his hood, leaving the bar. The drunkards were confused.

The young man took no more than five or six steps from the bar when he raised his hand up to head-height, and snapped his fingers. Almost instantly, the entire bar went up in raging, terrible flames, brutally incinerating everyone inside. Various small explosions went off as the alcohol ignited here and there. The hooded man grinned a wide smile, and withdrew into the shadows down the street.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

**Bet you can't figure out who the young man is ;) Stay tuned!**


	3. Newcomer

**asteroidpie: Sorry guys! It's bee time since I've updated. Due to procrastination, I've been totally caught up in oral presentations, essays, etc. You know, all the fun stuff in highschool. Well, here's a longer chapter 3. Enjoooooy! c:**

**Oh, almost forgot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Kingdom Hearts. Square and Disney do.**

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The sun shone into Laura's window every morning, waking her up and making her feeling relaxed and refreshed. However that wasn't the case this time. Rain pattered on her large window as her alarm went off. Expecting the warm sunlight shining through her window, she yawned, stretched and sat up. She looked over to her window happily, but found the sky looking right back at her with a very grim outlook. The clouds were darker than any she had seen before, the rain tumbling down even harder than before.

"What a bummer, I shouldn't have to walk in that today…" she sighed, walking out of her room and into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, her bright blonde hair sprang about in messy, wavy curls. "Absolutely gorgeous, aren't you, you looker!" Laura joked, running a rough-bristled brush through her hair, somewhat taming the hair she labeled frequently as 'medusa hair'.

Turning on the shower, she quickly got in and washed up. As she turned off the shower, something began to rustle in the living room. Laura froze up, as it was 6:45am and she was home alone. _Yikes… Things are also much scarier when you hear thunder and lightning outside,_ she thought to herself. She slowly, but quietly opened the bathroom door, in case someone was in the apartment with her.

Inwardly panicking, she began to contemplate any nearby items she could use in her defense. Oh! I've got it… she thought to herself, quickly running into her room and grabbed the hockey stick mounted on her wall. This stick brought back many memories, back to when she was first living with Adam.

Adam used to volunteer as a hockey coach for girls, and included Laura in the sport. This made Laura feel better, as she made new friends, including her best friend, Shelagh, and could concentrate her negative feelings about her birth parents into winning games. Soon after, she became one of the best players on her team. She looked upon the stick nostalgically, and felt safe with it as she took it into her possession.

Laura quickly strode to her dresser, taking out a white baseball shirt with orange shoulders and sleeves, and gray sweatpants. She gulped, and walked to her door.

As she peeked out of her room, she heard yet another rustle, which made her half jump, startled. 'Why me…?' she thought to herself as she groaned, inching farther and farther down the narrow hallway. She dreaded the possibility of an intrusion. Attempting to startle whatever was in the living room, she jumped out into the open, hockey stick hanging above her head, ready to strike.

"Haaa-!" However, there was nobody there. She lowered the hockey stick, and set it against the side of the sofa. "Huh…Weird." She whispered and shuddered at the damp, chilly breeze coming from…the open balcony door? She panicked, absolutely sure that someone must have been in the living room. Taking a quick look around, she ran over and closed the doors. Fixing the curtains, she noticed a small tear in the bottom. Oh, shit…"she winced, knowing how much Adam liked them.

She took a look at the clock and jumped at the fact that it was now 6:58. "Eek! I have to Get to school already…" she whined, remembering how she had a significant role in her High school's play. The rehearsal began at 7:30, and she couldn't afford to be late. Running back to her room to get her socks and undergarments on, she ran back out to get her bag, which was on the kitchen table. She put the white and light blue backpack on, and grabbed an apple. She looked over to the window beyond the kitchen in their dining area and glared at the ever-tumbling rain. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead and make my day…" Laura grumbled, slipping on her white and light- orange-colored Osiris shoes. Tucking the red laces into her shoes, she took her red umbrella and raced out of her apartment.

* * *

The air around Laura seemed to be over-concentrated with falling water as she waited for the city bus. Many cars drove past the bus stop as she sat inside of it, glad to be out of range of the rain. Surprisingly, she was the only one in the bus station. Usually it was packed with other students, both high school and university. _Well, wait... It IS seven in the morning... _she thought. _Maybe it isn't so abnormal, afterall._

She then glanced over to the group of familiar boys walking to the bus stop. _Of course I'd just have to jinx myself, wouldn't I… _she groaned mentally. She knew the group of boys all too well. Almost every day she took the bus early to school she came across them. They were a part of the school Football team. Dylan, the group's supposed leader, caught her eye, and gave an over-confident smirk to her, and then to the rest of his gang as they chuckled.

She rolled her eyes, muttering an "Oh, great," and shifted on the bench so she didn't have to look at them.

"Hey, Laur. You're taking the bus pretty early, aren't you?" he chuckled as him and his friends came closer into view.

"I guess," she replied nonchalantly, not paying attention. She shifted her gaze elsewhere, and watched the rain patter onto the sidewalk.

She knew all too well that he had been trying to get with her for the past month, but decided on their first encounter she would ignore him. Jocks were _so_ not her type. She knew she couldn't just ignore him, since he had all of his friends with him. She tensed up, but decided to play along, for now.

"So you've been talking the bus as early as us for like, every day so far this month, right guys?" his 'flunkies', as Laura described them, all chuckled, giving silly responses.

Laura shook her head, ruffling her wavy hair with her left hand. "Yes, Dylan, like, every day of this month. I'm in the school play…" she mimicked, and turned around to give him a sarcastic glare. His friends gave a little "Oooooooh," as if it had some sort of dramatic touch to the charming moment. Laura clenched her hands.

She then turned back to where she was facing, letting her shoulders loosen. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone new walking down the street, someone she hadn't seen before. He made her feel more curious than usual for reasons unknown to her. He had a forest green umbrella, and…**pinkish** brown hair? _No way. Now that was funny, _She giggled, not realizing Dylan had been rambling on and on about how they were going to go out somewhere 'romantic' after school.

"Yeah, sure, whatever you want, Dylan," she replied without thinking, more interested in the young man and his pinkish-brown hair. Immediately she froze, having realized what she had just agreed to. "Shit…" she whispered. Johnnie, his closest friend, gave a shout of victory for his friend.

"Woah, she finally agreed! Way to score, man." He exclaimed, giving Dylan a high five.

"I know, right?" he replied victoriously to his friend. "I promise that with me, Laur, you won't regret it. After all, I am irresistible." He said cockily, leaning against one of the bus stops' glass window panes. She stuck her tounge out in disgust. "You caught me out of focus, but whatever, I guess I'll hang out with you after school today." she sighed, just giving in. _If I just ginore him the entire time I'm with him, maybe he'll just ditch. Hopefully, he'll just ditch..._

_

* * *

_

The bell rang, signaling the end of Anthropology for Laura. She packed up her books and walked out of the rushing class. The entire day she had been thinking about the news reports about the foreign material, and how her English teacher had some crazy theory about how holes in time and space were opening up, sending objects to us from another world, or dimension. She had to give it to him, though, for his imagination. Although, in the back of her mind, it _could_ make sense...

"Did you see how bad I cut that player up? Oh, buddy, you don't even know. Shit. Was. Bruuuutal, boys!" she heard a voice bellow from down the hallway, and immediately recognized it as one of Dylan's friends, Troy. She glanced over from where she stood at her locker, and saw the two in intense game-mode from the previous night's Hockey game, in which they _did_ 'brutally' kick the other team's butt. They were good, but it didn't mean she had to like them. She half hid her head in her locker and tried to blend in with the group of tenth graders beside her taking. She wanted to try everything in her power to stay off their radar, and possibly avoid hers and Dylan's date. It was the last thing she wanted. _Oh, if Adam only knew what I had to go through at school..._

"Hey! Laura! How'd you do on your biology quiz? And why is your head in your..." a boyish voice asked out of the blue, making Laura jump and hit her head on the upper shelf of her locker. "...locker." the boy beside her winced, knowing he'd startled her. She retreated from the locker, rubbing her head and laughing. "Oh, I did alright I think. How about you, Leo?" she asked the tall, messy-brown haired boy. He grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I did alright. Sorry for scaring you there..."he apologized, but Laura assured him it was nothing. Putting away her heavy textbooks into her locker, she quickly closed it, glad to be done with them for the week.

He looked over past her, noticing the pair of jocks he assumed she'd been hiding from. "You got into trouble with _him_ again? It seems like you're drifting off more than usual lately..." he laughed, adding emphasis on 'him'.

Laura turned pale, a sort of desperate look on her face. "Wait, you know about that? How?" she asked, devastated.

_He better not have..._

"Are you kidding? All of Chemistry knows thanks to him. You're so lucky you had to finish a test outside the class today, because you would've ripped his head off!" he said between laughs. Laura glared at Lionel, or "Leo", as she called him.

"Ohhhhhhh! He's SO in for it tomorrow. Screw ever agreeing to go anywhere with him," she scoffed. Lionel chuckled, his hand over his eyes in disbelief of this hilarious scene.

Laura huffed, tensing up her body, but soon after loosened up with a sigh. "Well, since I'm going to be avoiding him, are you free for a while before going home?" she asked her messy-haired friend, who thought about her question for a second.

"I don't think I have anything to do. How come?" he asked her, expecting her to drag him to the park for the umpteenth time.

She smiled, excited. "Good, because we're trying out that new ice cream trailer over by the Zoo!" she exclaimed.

He gave her a smile, enjoying the idea. "Sure, why not...ah!" he could barely finish his scentence before she gave a 'woo-hoo!' and dragged him by the hand, running out of the hallways.

Laura's mouth turned to a small smile as she and Lionel walked out of the doors of her high school. After lunch, the rain had cleared up and left the earth and sky to dry out and warm up. _Perfect walking weather, _she thought to herself as they walked down the large concrete steps of her even larger, all-brick and molded concrete high school.

"So it's off to the Zoo we go, eh?" Lionel asked Laura as they walked across the student-filled parking lot, cars going by here and there.

Laura had a determined smile on her face. "We sure are. I was told that they have really cool flavors. There's this one I want to try, it's called..." she couldn't finish her thought because she had forgotten the flavour of ice cream.

Lionel gave her a puzzled look. "You okay there, brainfarts?" he joked. She punched him lightly in the arm.

"Oh, stop it. I remember what it was called now. It's called sea salt ice cream." she explained, proud of herself for remembering.

He gave her a disgusted look. "Salty ice cream? Sorry, but yuck!" he exclaimed, obviously unsure of what was possibly compelling her to try such a flavour. She pouted, stuck her nose up and walked faster, stepping onto the sidewalk.

"You're no fun, Leo. Have some fun once in a while, you know? I want to see what all the hype is all about, so I'm going to try it." she grinned confidently to him who was trying to catch up to her. He sped up to her and put his hands in his pockets.

"Whatever you say, Laur." he said nonchalantly, obviously onto another thought in his head. "Come to think of it, have you seen Shelagh around? I received texts from her last night, but I haven't seen her at all today..." he trailed off, wondering where their red-haired friend could be.

Laura thought for a second. "It isn't like her to just...dissapear on us, is it? She's the kind to let us know if she feels bad, or if she's run off somewhere early." Laura brainstormed, confused as to why she hadn't been answering any texts all day.

Lionel shrugged. "Maybe her phone's dead and she simply already left, that's all. It happens." he concluded, and gave Laura a reassuring smile. She smiled back.

"Yeah, you're right. Hey, look, we're at the Zoo now. Let's get our ice cream!" Laura exclaimed, jumping in excitement.

He rolled his eyes playfully. "Alright, easy, 'Cheers'," he said back to her jokingly. She rolled her eyes, smiled wide and gave a "Whatever".

Lionel glanced over to the ice cream trolley, over-run by small kids and the elderly. "It seems pretty crowded over there. Why don't you go get us a spot to sit over by the pond?" he suggested. "I'll be back with the ice cream in a little bit."

To her, it seemed like a great idea. "Awesome, I hate crowds. But don't take too long!" she agreed, smiling. She turned around and started towards the pond, where they usually sat.

But something didn't feel right.

She jogged quickly across the paths to their favorite hangout, where the pond area was still a little damp from the rain. She settled down underneath a willow tree by the water, where there were a couple large rocks outlining the banks. She sat on one of the rocks, looking out onto the water. It was calm, as usual. She let the bag slip off of her shoulders where it had previously been bugging her.

There was a loose, warm breeze in the air. She sighed as she took in the smell of some fresh-blooming wildflowers a couple feet away from where she sat. The smell seemed to clear her mind, refreshing it from being so caught up in schoolwork, the news, stressful people and car exhaust. "Their aroma... It's nice, isn't it?" she heard a smooth voice behind her ask. She turned around to see it was the man she had spotted earlier that morning. Shocked, she nodded. "Why, yes, it really is." she replied, not knowing what to say.

_Should I smile? Should I be creeped out? He doesn't seem like he would do any harm, would he? He just started a conversation with me... But he's a stranger. But Leo will come back any minute, won't he-_

Sorry if I startled you, there. I had seen you this morning waiting for the bus, then at school, and wasn't sure if you were the same person. But you are, so it's all fine and dandy." he explained.

She nodded, finally observing his strange appearance. The man, looking like he was in his late teens, had longish, shaggy brown hair that had a slight tint of pink in it. _Strange_, she thought. The man wore a grey and jungle green Dolman style sweater, with a checkered scarf. He wore dark-coloured jeans and checkered Vans-like shoes. _Over all, he looked decent,_ she thought, _despite the pinkish hair. _

"Are you new at school or something?" Laura asked, unsure of what else to say. He smiled and nodded as he came to sit down beside her. " Yes, I just transferred from...Canada," he explained hesitantly. She questioned in her head why he had hesitated. Almost as if he had read her mind, he laughed.

"I know that sounded a little sketchy. I wasn't sure if you were familiar with the town I'm from, so I just decided to say my country..." he replied sheepishly, shifting himself so he sat facing towards her, cross-legged. She did the same, somewhat trusting this new person. It felt weird still, though, like something was pulling a nerve in the back of her heart.

"That's alright," Laura replied with a smile. "Do you like it at all here? I know it might be hard changing schools in the middle of a semester." He nodded.

"Especially in grade 12. It's nonsense trying to reason with the guidance here, know what I mean? All a bunch of grumps," he joked with a nervous grin. She could tell he was being sincere, so she decided to bring up something that's been on her mind.

"So how long have you been in Manhattan? Long enough to watch the news broadcasts about the findings?" She asked enthusiastically. He seemed lost in thought for a moment, and then let out an "Oh!", reaching into his pocket. With a sneaky grin, he pulled out his hand, clenched around something.

"So you know about it too, do you? Wait until you see this..." he whispered loudly, unclenching his hand and dropping what he had held in her two hands.

Laura gasped in both suprise, bewilderment and amazement. "N-no...No way!"

**-----**

**asteroidpie: Yeah, cliffie. So what? :D Stay tuned, I'm writing the next one right now.**


	4. Distortion

**A/N: Okay, I know, it's been almost all OC up until now, except for the hooded man and "Marly". But, it WILL get more interesting... Eventually. Trust me.**

**p.s- I've been studying for exams and final tests, as well as finishing final projects for school. So, I haven't been able to write as much. However, I have a break! I****'ll try and get around 2 more chapters done very soon.**

**Well, enjoy! :) Thanks for reading.**

* * *

"Dude," she gasped, as she cupped in her hands something she thought to be almost impossible for herself to possess. There it was, a small, red, crystal in the shape of a star. Around it hovered small shards seemingly made of the same material. "This... This can't be what I think it is. It can't be." she muttered, baffled, as it began to slowly hover above her cupped hands. "How...how did you...?"

He chuckled, as if she was over-reacting over the thing. "Pure blazing crystal," he explained, gesturing with his index finger as he spoke. "Harder to come across, but much more common than other materials, you must know."

She blinked her wide, pale blue eyes. "This is nuts. I'll have to show Leo!" she chimed. Her expression then darkened, and she looked up at the boy. "But...why would you show _me_ this? Why not someone at that Laboratory?" she questioned, rocking her cupped hands left and right and watching the crystal mimic her movements. This wasn't normal. He could have donated it and earned some serious cash.

He gave her a simple grin. "They don't need to know. It's not their business to meddle with other worlds," he replied as if it was nothing, scratching his head. He shifted his gaze from Laura to a couple of people jogging on the trail.

She gave him a look. "Huh?" she asked, and his attention was shifted back to her.

"But us? We're a completely different story, you and I..." he trailed off, taking back the blazing crystal he had shown her and putting it in his pocket, and took a hold of Laura's hand. She was still in stupor. _'Is this guy for real? Is this day for real?'_

"You and I are meant to search for the unknown. Can you feel them?" he asked her, lifting his other hand to rest where his heart would be. He received a shocked look from her as he withdrew his hand from hers. She was never one for physical contact. _'Plus... that feeling... almost like he was looking into me.'_

"Eh? Feel who?" she questioned, wanting to get up and walk away. He was beginning to act a little sketchy to her. _'Is he high?' _"Listen. The crystal deal was pretty cool and all, but honestly... I have no idea what, or who you're talking about!" she laughed nervously.

He sighed. "Maybe now wasn't the best time to come talk to you. Although..." he mused, staring into her eyes. He shook his head, chuckling sadly. "No. I'll see you again, but later on, I suppose-"

"Hey, Laur, you wouldn't BELIEVE what I had to go through to get these!" she heard Lionel call out to her from the trail, holding two bars of sea-salt ice cream.

"Marly" chuckled. "Seems to be a popular ice cream flavour even here." Laura turned to him to give him another strange look, but was suprised at what she saw. Nothing.

_'He... Dissapeared? What?'_

"You okay, Laura? You just looked over to the trees over there and completely dazed out." Lionel remarked, handing her her ice cream. She shook her head in confusion. "Didn't you see him? The guy I was just talking with. Pink-brown hair?" she asked frantically. Her friend shook her head, and gave her a concerned look. "Come on! He was sitting right next to me." He shrugged. "Heat's getting to you. You sure you're not becoming schizo?" he joked.

Laura sighed, taking a bite of her salty-sweet ice cream. "Great, now you think I'm crazy." she joked, punching him softy in the arm. He laughed, taking large bites of his ice cream.

"You know, this ice cream isn't all that bad, eh?" he said, deciding to change the subject.

Laura gave him a puzzled look for a second, wondering why he didn't push the previous subject further like he usually does with other things. She discarded the thought and smiled. "I told you it would be good! Just like salt water taffy."

He took another large bite. "Bittersweet. Kinda like your little moment with sir football captain, eh?" he joked, flashing her a cheesy, toothy smile. She scoffed in mock annoyance, and punched him in the arm playfully.

"Ha! Yeah right. He couldn't impress me if he was the only guy left in the world!" she exclaimed, shooting her arms up in the air. He grinned evilly, and took a bite of his ice cream.

"I'll hold you to that, you know." he warned jokingly, pointing at Laura with his half-eaten ice cream. She simply shook her head and smiled.

Already having finished his ice cream, Lionel lay back to gaze at the sky, but his expression darkened as he caught a glimpse of the dark clouds approaching from farther away. "Sheesh, one moment, it's a beautiful sunny day, and now tonight, we'll be hit by a storm..." he whined and stretched his arms and legs out as far as humanly possible.

Laura frowned as she noticed the small dark clouds approaching slowly. "Lame! And just when I thought it was going to be summertime for real..."

_'What a weird day..'_

* * *

The wind whistled ruthlessly through the weather panes throughout the apartment floors as Laura ascended the apartment stairwell. Ever since the elevator incident of '08 in her apartment building, she vowed to never, ever take the elevator ever again. The wind through the weatherpanes whistled sharper and sharper as she climbed the stairs, sounding more and more like a loud, distressed train whistle. It made her nervous.

As she reached the 12th floor, she felt more and more like someone was following her up the seemingly endless stairwell, without making a sound. The presence made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her uneasiness had interpreted her patter against the cold to a ticking time bomb.

_It's not even light out,  
_

_But you've somewhere to be_

"Damn, the one weekend Adam takes off on a business trip," she panted, running faster up the steps, "why does he have to be some rich businessman, living up on the freakin' 15th floor?!"

As she reached the 14th floor (she always thought the lack of a 13th floor made no sense to her), she was relieved to have only one more flight of stairs to cross before she reached her set of hallways.

The metal door seemed colder than usual as she pushed the large bar into the mechanism, opening the door and running down to her hallway. As she slowed her pace down to a brisk walk, the air around her was chilly and crisp, like the air after the morning dew in April. On the 15th floor, the weather panes' whistling on the lower floors was now replaced by an eerie howling heard all throughout the apartment building. As she neared the turn to which her apartment was, the power was shut off.

She let out a quick yelp, but regained her composure. _'Freaking out isn't going to get me anywhere... I've gotta find the door,' _she reassured herself mentally, placing her hand on the side of the wall and doors to feel out the numbers. As she came nearer to the intersection of the hallway, a very bright, menacing bolt of lightning came down, illuminating the hallway for a mere half a second.

**Crash**

As she peered forward to the hallway in front of her, she gasped as she saw a silhouette of a person, standing, watching her. As soon as she saw him, however, it was dark again. Frozen in fear, she was thankful that another weaker flash of lighting came down, seconds after the first one.

**Crash**

But this time, the silhouette was nowhere to be seen.

_I know what you're thinking,_

Still very afraid of this haunting, menacing figure she had seen, she bolted down her hallway. Almost stumbling from realising she had almost passed her door, she quickly fished her spare key out of her bra. Swiftly placing the key in the lock, she slid inside, locking the door behind her in several places.

_But darling you're not thinking straight_

Sliding her back down against the reinforced steel door, she finally felt safe. Panting from the running, she glanced over to the shaking windows, absolutely drenched on the outside from the incredible amount of rain. Regaining her composure once again, steadily breathing, she watched the water stream down the windowsill above the window like small waterfalls.

_"At least I'm safe now... Even if I DID see someone out there... They can't get in. They can't touch me...' _Laura ran her fingers through her hair, sighing.

_Sadly things just happen we can't explain_

~*~

**A/N: ;) Appearances in the next chapter, and that's a promise! Review, and I'll update more ofteeeeen~ ! **

**PS - Sorry this one is so short!**


	5. Unknown Bonds

Laura splashed the cold water against her face with disdain, rinsing off the grapefruit-scented facial scrub off of her face. "Guess the water heater's electrically powered, as well..." she shivered, grabbing the towel she was so used to grabbing, even in the darkness of the power outage. Sighing, she turned and strode confidently to the door, only to find it wasn't open like she thought it would be.

"Owwww..." she whined, flinching, and opening the door. Outside, the rain battered and battered the windows. The crashing thunder and lightning never faltering. "What a rotten night..." she whispered as she walked carefully over to the living room. Feeling her way around the couch, she reached her arm out in attempt to find the safety light on the wall, and flipped the switch.

Laura waited for the light to turn on, but waited in vain. _What the heck? Seems like more than just a power outage is going on here... _Tapping her foot impatiently, she began to think of where the spare flashlight had disappeared to, and remembered that Lionel was screwing around in the towel closet the other day with it. "Leave it to him..." she whispered with a small smile as she strode over to the hallway.

As she reached for the doorknob (which was found thanks to a close bolt of lightning), she froze. The air around her turned cold, as if someone had serious AC issues. It lingered for a while, and for some reason, she felt as if she shouldn't go for the flashlight. She felt as if _someone_ didn't _want_ her to get the flashlight. Feeling uneasy, she retreated to her bedroom.

"Maybe...it was nothing. Maybe...I'm just tired," she reassured herself, still uneasy about the feeling around her. "I should get some sleep. It's late..." Retreating to her doorway across the hall, the cold, unwelcome feeling seemed to pass.

As she finished changing into her pajamas, it seemed almost as if the already ferocious storm had gotten worse. Opening the curtains covering the window beside her bed, she was scowled down upon by an almost opaque sky, as well as rain that made vision through the glass almost impossible.

She groaned in response to the unwelcome gaze the sky had given her. It continued on with a low, menacing growl, followed by a distant bolt of lightning from far-off.

"Ugh." Falling back onto her bed, she stared up at the glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. It all seemed like the day happened a little too fast to Laura, as she began to recall the strange things that had happened. The man named "Marly", and how Lionel claims he didn't see him, calling her "schizo".

_But something didn't feel right. It almost seemed like he _did_, but didn't want to tell me... _

She sighed in annoyance at her friend's reaction earlier that day. "But he was _there_! I was _talking_ to him and he gave me that... that crystal!" she complained, dissatisfied at the turnout of their encounter.

She stretched out her arm, almost as if to reach up to the stars on her ceiling. She then contemplated the strange and intimidating silhouette that had haunted her as she had sped through the hallway. She retracted hr arm quickly, knowing that she wouldn't get any sleep if she kept thinking about it.

Finally giving into fatigue, she turned over onto her stomach, slowly drifting off to sleep...

* * *

_Blue skies. Warm breeze. Faint cries of seabirds heard here and there. The calming, constant sound of the waves. The smell of ripe fruit and fresh, healthy plants. Everything seemed peaceful, like nothing could go wrong. _

_Two lively teenage boys sparred skillfully on the beach, who were being cheered on by a cheery, pretty teenage girl. The silver-haired boy, who seemed older and was much more muscular than the brown-haired boy, but it was still an even match. _

_The auburn-haired girl was laughing at the funny faces the brown-haired boy made to her. She seemed to be the same age as him. The Silver-haired boy took advantage of this, and caught his brown-haired friend off guard. _

_I watched them from up on a hill, dangling my feet off of the bent tree I sat on. They seemed so happy. Their faces seemed so sincere. _

_As quickly as the bright image began, it began to fade. Darkness crept from the forest to my right, as well as from the water to my left. The sky grew a deep blue, the darkness snuffing out any source of light. The silver-haired boy seemed to walk backwards into the darkness, holding his hand out to the brown-haired boy, calling out his name: _

_'Sora.'_

_Sora, who showed great fear in his face, was about to reach for his hand when the auburn-haired girl whispered his name. _

_'Sora...'_

_ He whipped his head around, looking like he was at a complete standstill towards what he should do. The silver-haired boy became annoyed._

_'Sora!'_

_Sora glanced at both of them, unable to move._

_'Riku... Kairi...'_

_Sora muttered, as who I thought was Riku gave him an evil smirk, and dissapeared into the darkness. The one I thought was Kairi cried out to Sora again, before vanishing. Sora's head hung in lonliness. Almost instantly, a beam of light shone like a sword in Sora's hand, changing into a sort of key. He took it in both hands, swinging at the darkness many times. The darkness began to mix with the light illuminating Sora, until it swirled about, making a bright blur._

_It was bright. I covered my eyes with my arms. When I took them away, I found myself in an all-white hallway, where I saw Sora again. But he wasn't alone. At his sides were a dressed duck, holding a staff, and dog, holding a shield. Sora seemed more determined as he stared at the figure in front of him. I blinked as I saw his face. _

_Not Marly... Marluxia._

_His name came instantly into my mind. In his hand was a large, pink and green scythe, and he pointed it to Sora, who charged at him. As he jumped at Marluxia, his friends behind him, the whole scene was washed away, like sand mixing with water. It shaped another, where a large, white pod stood in the middle of an immense, white room. _

_In front of the pod stood a girl with blond hair and a white dress. A man with bandages covering his head came to stand beside her. _

_'It seems we've come to a standstill.' his voice sounded deep and cultured. He made me feel strange._

_She nodded meekly. 'Yes.' _

_I saw an orb of darkness grow larger beside them, and from it emerged a silver-haired boy who I thought may have been an older version of the boy I saw before. His eyes were blindfolded and he wore a black leather trenchcoat with a silver chain across the chest, and two silver tassels as hood strings. The bandaged man spoke again._

_'Riku. You know what to do.' _

_'Right.' Riku nodded, and became emerged in the darkness he appeared in, which soon disappeared. _

_This scene swirled, and changed quickly before my eyes to a dark, rainy city. A heart-shaped moon hung in the sky, I thought it looked beautiful. _

_Ahead of me were two dark-cloaked figures. I saw one figure carrying a large key in each hand, and the other with only one. They spoke, but I couldn't hear them. However, a name came into my head:_

_Roxas. _

_The one with two keys. I stared at the two, and they charged towards each other. Their keys clashed, and the scene was once again washed away._

_I opened my eyes again and found myself once again at the beach, with the same three teens: Sora, Kairi, Riku. This time, I watched Riku hug a large mouse, and Sora get tackled by the duck and dog. Kairi laughed at Sora. They all seemed so happy. I was alone. I was only watching them._

_Swirling again. I found myself watching them again, but from the beach. They were on the hill, sitting on the bent tree. They were talking about a letter. _

_They looked up to the sky, and I felt myself looking up too-_

_

* * *

_

_Lillian woke up abruptly from her dream, sitting up, panting, eyes wide open. "What the... hell?" she panted, trying to regain her breath. Almost instantly, the thunder outside roared, which made her jump. Sliding her legs to the side of her bed, she rested her arms on them. Sighing, she recalled most of the dream she had just woken up from. "Who... who were they?"she asked herself. _

_Instinctively, her right hand rose up to her heart. "Do I know them from somewhere?" she mumbled, looking over to her lamp on her bedside table. Her heart felt heavy, like something was tugging at it from underneath. Am I forgetting something? _Convinced she had never met any of those people, she got up and headed for the kitchen.

As she stepped into the kitchen, she looked up at the battery-powered clock. It read 3:31. She shook her head at how late-or early- it was, and reached up in the cupboard above the sink, which was, once again, dripping. "For heaven's sake, someone's gotta get this fixed..." she complained, filling up her glass. She took a small swig, letting it sit in her mouth for a second before swallowing.

**You are the next link to the chain**

Laura almost spat out her water in shock as she heard a voice call to her. "Wh-what? Who's in my apartment?" she called out, scared.

**Do not be afraid. Walk the chosen path. The light will guide you**

"What chosen path? Who are you? _Where_ are you?" Lillian asked, setting the glass down and looking out the kitchen entry, before entering the living room. She looked left: Nobody. She looked right: Nobody, either. Completely confused, she stood in the middle of her living room.

**Do not be afraid. Walk the chosen path. The light will guide you**

Gulping, she walked towards her hallway. It was like her feet were moving all on their own. When she stopped in front of her entryway, the front door lock glistened, and the door opened all on its own, the glistening fading into sparkles. Laura found it strange that she didn't feel scared anymore. Slipping on her circa sneakers, she opened the door wider. Instead of her hallway stood a bright white path. Reluctantly, Laura walked down the path, admiring this strange place she entered. _Am I dreaming? Is this real? _She ran her hand through the air beside her, touching the swirls of pale orange, yellow, pink and pale, pale blue.

**Do not fear... Let the light guide you. The power is your own**

"Huh? What do you mean? What power?" Laura asked the voice, confused. _What is going on here? _Before she could ask anything more, The light shone even brighter as if she walked through a doorway. The light tugged at her body, pulling her through. Moving quicker and quicker, she moved to a position she could have sworn was like flying. Soon, everything faded... She reached her destination.


	6. Honey, you're not in kansas anymore

**A/N: Hey guys, just letting you know that I can draw, as well! :) I have a full floor plan of Laura's apartment, as well as drawings of her, Lionel, "Marly", Sora's and Riku's new looks (don't worry, they're not all that different. I'm staying within their colour themes, etc.) as well as different aspects of Laura (which you will learn later on). I'll have them updated onto my DA soon, so stay tuned and you may get a link to some drawings! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is not mine. **

* * *

Laura stirred slightly, delirious. Moving her arms backward, she propped herself up to a sitting position. "My head..." she groaned, clutching her head and crossing her legs. _How long have I been lying here?_ She paused in her thoughts, opening up her eyes, and was completely lost for words.

Partly cloudy skies. Warm breeze. Warm sand. Rustling of the leaves of palm trees. Faint cries of seabirds. The close sound of calm waves. Laura's body took a moment to process the sensations surrounding her, her mind still half delirious, half dumbfounded. "This is... this is the place I had a dream of. I know it..." she whispered, now on her knees in amazement. She brought her gaze down to the beach underneath her, grazing it with the tips of her fingers.

"This is...real. I'm actually here. This isn't a dream." she mumbled, tracing a pattern in the sand as she spoke to herself. Turning herself around to sit and face the other way, she took in every bit of the beautifully pale-coloured ocean before her. She felt her heart flutter, as if it was good that she was here, as if this was what was meant to happen.

However, her mind said otherwise. _What about Adam? Lionel? What...happened to me? _

She sighed, knowing it wouldn't be easy to get back to her home from where she was - wherever _that_ was. Headache finally settling, she rose to her feet. Turning to the forest on a hill, which consisted of tall, lush, green tropical trees, she took in the smell of the tropical breeze. A makeshift boardwalk along the hill caught her eye. "Hmm..." she wondered, hoping it would lead her someplace other than the barren beach she woke up on.  
Walking up the boardwalk onto the hill, an old, decrepit-looking shack caught her eye. It reminded her of hers and Lionel's tree fort from long ago, which made her smile. Walking over to it, the makeshift door - a large piece of bark- was ajar.

Carefully walking in, all smiles, she admired the old drawings pinned to the walls. She then noticed two small wooden swords leaning upright against the corner of the shack. Laura giggled. "These were theirs..." she concluded, leaning down and grazing her finger against the dusty hilt of the larger sword.

Just then, Laura heard voices, and immediately sprang up. "... could've sworn...fell...here!" a muffled voice cried out from inside the forest. Laura froze up on the spot, at a loss of what to do. "Idiot!...ssible...might have...beach!" a closer voice answered back, which was replied by excessive rustling in the bush and forest. "Oh, right," an even closer, boyish voice laughed nervously, and then there was a long pause. Confused, Laura turned around to face the doorway, and was about to poke her head out when-

"Hi."

"Yaagh!" Laura shrieked at the face that was very close to hers through the doorway, jumping up and hitting her head. She fell back on her buttocks. "Oww..." she groaned, rubbing her previously aching head since she woke up. The person that scared her began to crack up. "Not the sharpest crayon in the box, are we?" he laughed, holding out a hand in front of her face. Sighing angrily, she took his hand, and he helped her up. "Well, you're not the nicest- Huh?" Laura paused mid- insult as she was able to perform a proper inspection of his face. _Riku._

He smirked. "What, cat got your tounge?" he grinned, crossing his arms. She shook it off, knowing now wasn't the time to be gawking like an idiot. "Watch it, pal." she warned, stepping past him out of the decrepit playhouse, but stopped behind him.

"Besides, where am I? Where is this place? Hawaii?" she asked, looking around her. Riku held the bridge of his nose for a second, sighing. Turning around, he rose a hand to the side of his mouth. "Found it, Sora! C'mon already and stop goofing off in the forest." _Sora... Hey, wait a sec!_ Laura thought, recognizing Sora's name from her dream, but quickly snapped out of it,realising what the guy who looked like Riku had called her. _It! IT! I'm not an it! I'm a girl, for crying out loud! _Before Laura could open her mouth to shoot back at him, a figure came rushing out of the bush going a mile a minute. "Really?! What is it? Is it big? Shiny? Interesting for _once_?-" he was cut off by Riku pointing behind him with his thumb. Laura stepped out from behind Riku cautiously.

"Ohhhh..." Sora stood there for a second with a blank expression on his face, while Riku looked between the two, scratching his silver-haired head. He looked completely stupid to Laura, which made her restrain herself from almost cracking up in laughter. "OH!" Sora said quite suddenly, causing both Riku and Laura to jump. "You came by gummi ship, then? So, where is it? What's your name? Where ya from?" he asked excitedly, all at once. Riku sighed, shaking his head. "You ask too many questions." he scolded Sora. Sora nodded, replying with a "sorry" to Laura. Riku turned to her.

"First of all, what's your name?" he asked her. She gulped. "My name's Laura. And you're..." she trailed, off, gesturing to Riku. She knew who he was, but to Laura, what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. "Riku. And this is Sora." he answered quickly, gesturing to Sora as he introduced him. Sora waved with a small "hi!". Laura instinctively smiled and waved back. "So, where's your gummi ship? What's it like?" Sora chirped, excited. Riku seemed to be interested as well, but only mildly. Laura gave them both a confused look. "Gummi ship... yeah. I don't have one. What the heck is it, anyways?" she asked, sort of puzzled. _This is weird. _

The two boys exchanged glances, almost as if they had a conversation. Sora stepped towards Laura, inspecting her every aspect with his fists resting on his hips, moving his entire torso around as he investigated. Laura had to resist the urge to laugh a second time. After a moment of his awkward inspection, he drew himself back, seeming to come to a conclusion.  
"Nope, you don't seem like the Gummi-pilot type to me, But you don't seem like the type to use darkness, either..." he trailed off, hand on his chin comically. He was obviously confused at his conclusion. Riku tensed up, and gave Laura a sharp look. "Then how did she fall from the sky? How did you get into our world?" he asked, more like demanded of her. She looked down, embarrassed, and took a deep breath.

"Well, you see... First thing I know, I'm getting a drink of water in my kitchen, then I hear a voice, talking about how light will guide the way. I look out of my kitchen and then my front door unlocks by itself. There was this shiny...lighty...thing, and it was replacing my hallway. I walked through it, and...here I am." Taking a deep breath after all she had said, she looked at the two boys. Riku laughed, and turned to Sora. "You mean she's the light warrior that the king talked about? You've gotta be kidding."he ridiculed, pointing at Laura with his thumb.

Sora smiled a bit and shook his shoulders. Walking over to Laura, who was now absolutely the most confused she's ever been, he placed his right hand on her shoulder. "C'mon Riku, have a little faith. Can't judge anyone by how they look!" he chuckled, but it seemed to Laura that even he was doubting her a little bit. _Waaaait a sec. Doubting what now, again? _she thought to herself, still completely confused. Irritated, she shook away from Sora's hand. "Okay, hold up. Now it's your turn to tell me what the heck is going on. What king? And I'm no warrior!" she argued, knowing herself the only 'warrior-like' thing about her was her hand-to-hand combat that Lionel had taught her.

"You're right about one thing. She doesn't look powerful," Riku began, facing the both of them, "but haven't you felt it, too, Sora? The light?" Sora thought for a second, his arms crossed. Laura felt annoyed that they were ignoring her questions.

"You know, you're right. It's been strong since she fell, and even stronger once we reached the island here." Sora concluded, gesturing with his hand to Laura, stating she was the cause. Riku smiled. "Which means the king wasn't wrong." He grabbed Laura's hand, which made her twitch. "Uhh, about this-" she was cut off by him. "C'mon, There's no time to waste. We leave tomorrow!" he declared, and began to walk away at a quick pace. Laura, basically being dragged behind him, tried to wring away from his vicegrip, complaining here and there as he continued walking. "Uh! Riku! What do you mean, leave tomorrow?" Sora cried after him, confused. "We're going to have an audience with the king. Let's go!" He replied happily, ignoring the fact that he was cutting off Laura's circulation. Sora sighed, running after him.

Laura grunted. "You can let go of me, now! I'll just come with you guys, it's not like I have anywhere else to go!" she complained, and Riku snapped out of his thoughts of seeing his king again. "Oh, yeah, sorry." he replied dully, letting go of her hand. Laura rubbed her wrist in attempt to start feeling it again. Grabbing Riku by the arm, she easily spun him around to catch his attention. "Sheesh, I don't get either of you. You just meet me, talk about some light shit and then about your king, and then you start dragging me along this godforsaken beach. Have you _ever_ thought about what I feel about this entire situation?" Riku seemed suprised at her sudden outburst, not knowing what to say.

"Wonder how disoriented I am? I'm in my freaking _pyjamas_ on a beach, that was just so _conveniently _two steps outside my front door," she complained pointing at her yellow tank top and her orange pyjama pants with white stripes on the outsides. She tapped her foot impatiently, and the look on Riku's face simply implied that he was acknowledging her.

Finally having caught up, Sora stopped beside them, panting. "Yeah, Riku, we don't even know what world she's come from. She has a point." Sora pointed out, backing Laura up. Riku sighed, realizing how ignorant he had been. Laura smiled at Sora, thanking him. "Okay. So, I'm from...well, Manhattan..." she didn't know whether or not to add in "on earth" at the end, but decided not to incase she was still on earth. Riku and Sora thought for a moment. "Can't say I've ever heard of that place." Sora concluded, while Riku nodded. "I bet the king has, though, which is why we need to get back to the village to figure things out." Sora shook his head at Riku's desperation to see the king again. "Yeah, yeah, let's go!" Sora chimed, letting Riku walk down the beach to the dock, where a simple motorboat waited.

Sora glanced over to Laura, bringing his hands behind his head as they walked at a slower pace. "Sorry about Riku. He's really good friends with the king," he explained, looking up at the sky, "but I hope we figure out what's going on. We're just as confused as you are..." Laura nodded. "I'm sorry for over-reacting. Maybe this king of yours can tell me how to get back to Manhattan!" Laura said excitedly. She had so hoped for her theory to be true, so she could just go home.

Sora nodded. "Judging by how you got here, he can probably teach you how. You have a special kind of light in you. It's really strong." he added, the both of them reaching the dock. Laura took in what he had said, but didn't really understand it. _A light inside of me? This is just getting strange, _she thought, hopping into the small, metal motor boat.

* * *

The boat ride from one island to the other, to Laura, felt almost surreal. The sun set on the water, painting the sky of oranges, yellows and faint reds. Laura leaned over the side of the boat, looking back at it. Her mind felt out of place, as if this was all some sort of misunderstanding. Laura Letterwood was never supposed to walk into the light, end up on an some tripical island, meet up with two absent-minded boys talking about the light inside of her -the light!- and wind up sticking around with them for god knows how long...right?

Laura shifted her position to facing the front of the boat. Sora turned to face her, concerned. "You okay?" he asked, placing a hand on her back comfortingly. Laura moved her face into her hands. "I don't know how long it will take to return to my 'world', or if I'll even return at all..." Laura sighed, staring at the dirt-covered bottom of the boat.

Sora gave her a worried look. "Don't think like that, it seems like the light saved you from your world. Your world will come back out of the darkness eventually!" he attampted at comforting her, as if what he had just said to her would reassure him. "Oh, okay, it'll come out of the darkness soon," she replied, to receive a smile from Sora. Suddenly her eyes became wide, realising what he had just said.

"Wha-wha-wha whaddya mean, come back from the darkness? Manhattan's in some sort of darkness now?!" she panicked, grabbing a hold of Sora's shoulders in distress. Sora realised what he had told her so easily, as well, and mentally kicked himself. People who knew nothing of the world order, simply, didn't need to know about it at risk of getting paranoid.

Just then, the boat reached the dock, and they all climbed out of the boat. Laura stared at Sora, wishing he hadn't said what he had said to her. "Uh, well, you see, it's just a figure of speech," he reassured, laughing nervously and waving his hands about, "your world is still _there _and stuff, it's just-" "The people in your world must have had too much darkness in them. So, it's been surrounded in their darkness. You can't return unless it recovers, which is highly unlikely," Riku corrected Sora, much to Laura's fear and disbelief.

She gave both Riku and Sora a desperate, afraid look before running off up the hill, past the village before them and towards a path surrounded by tall, concealing grass. Sora, mouth still agape at what had happened, then turned to Riku with an unbelievable look. "Riku!" he shouted at his friend, shocked and angry. "Now look what happened! World Order, Riku! For heaven's sake..." he scolded before running off after Laura. Riku scoffed, frustrated at the entire situation, and stormed off to a house up on a nearby cliff.

* * *

**A/N: :D Review! I'm halfway done the next chapter, so I'll have it ready in a little while. **


	7. Dancing with Death

**A/N: Heya! Like I said before, drawings are underway, as well as different scenario plans on my DA account. Once I get everything underway, I'll have a link to my DA account on my profile page... enjoy!**

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PS: I'm basing Riku's house on the small glimpse of his porch seen in the beginning of the KH manga (or something along the lines of that...). So, bear with me until I draw out a sketch of what I think his house looks like.  
PPS: Sorry for so many scene changes in this chapter, but it's the only way I can make things... well, make sense. Also, I'm hoping I got Riku's personality right... Anyhow, once again, enjooooooy!

* * *

She gave both Riku and Sora a desperate, afraid look before running up the hill, past the village before them and towards a path surrounded by tall, concealing grass.

Sora, mouth still agape at what had happened, turned to Riku with an unbelievable look. "Riku!" he shouted at his friend. "Now look what happened!" Riku looked away, stating he obviously wasn't interested.

Sora clenched his fists angrily and quickly stepped closer to Riku, looking him in the eye.

"Buh-Gh-UGH! World Order, Riku!" he stammered angrily, his voice slightly cracking when he shouted his friends' name.

Riku exhaled sharply out of his nose, staring down at him.

Sora backed down, disappointed, and stepped back a few steps away from him.

"For heaven's sake, I know you better than that..." he mumbled, before turning around and running off after Laura.

Riku scoffed, frustrated at the entire situation, and stormed off to a house up on a nearby cliff.

Sora ran as quickly as he could past his village and after Laura, earning confused, concerned stares and small worried shouts from his fellow villagers.

He smiled nervously towards them before running even faster up the hill.

Looking down the valley from where he stood up at the top of the hill, he saw no trace of Laura. Looking back at the now set sun, he sighed.

"Way to go, Riku..." he mumbled to himself before jumping in a spin high up into the air, using his abilities gained from his last adventure to fall at a slower pace than usual.

_Why is he acting ruder than usual? He's _never_ like that to girls..._ Sora thought to himself, looking left and right across the ocean of tall grass in search of movement.

"Oh!" he smiled as he saw a familliar blonde-headed figure, running towards the market area of the islands.

Quickly changing his position onto his belly, he swooped down to the ground in one quick movement, closer to the city.

Smiling to himself at the convenience of his gained abilities, he darted off towards the town market.

* * *

Riku slammed his front door behind him, thoughtlessly kicking off his shoes, which both slammed the door one after the other behind him from being flung off his feet with such force.

He made his way to his kitchen, sat down on a stool in front of the island and rested his head face-down on crossed arms against it.

After waiting a moment, he gave out a long, exasperating mixture of a frustrated groan and sigh.

_What's her deal with me? The entire time I was around her it felt like we were on the opposite ends of a magnet,_ _pushing eachother away..._

He slowly rested his head against his arms and shifted on his stool. He sat like that for a moment, then stirred again.

His heart felt like what he did was wrong, but his mind didn't want to admit he was being a jerk.

"It's her fault that she walked into the portal..." he mumbled into his arms, but then paused to think for a moment.

_But... I wandered into the darkness at one point, too. That's hypocritical,_ he judged, sighing.

Sitting up, arms still crossed, he looked beyond the kitchen and the dining table to the large picture window in the dining room.

_So what is it, then?_ He glared at it for a moment. Tensing up all of his upper body muscles, as if to restrain himself from looking out of it, he then loosened up, as if he had given up.

With a glum look of guilt on his face, he slugged off the stool and dragged himself across the way to the large dining room window.

The sun had just recently set, leaving a shadow of the reds, yellows and oranges that has once graced the sky, along with a darker blue on the opposite side of the sky. A wall of dark, over-bearing thunderclouds hung idly in the distance, just past the mountains.

Riku could hear the faint sound of the radio from in the living room, which was, of course, playing something that absolutely related to his situation: _Ain't no Sunshine When she's Gone_ by Billy Withers.

It didn't mean he had to like it.

He threw the closest object, a small day planner of his fathers', at the 'off' button in a frustrated episode. It hit it dead on, turning off the radio, as well as making it fall off the small table it sat on.

He gave it a look, stating he did _not_ feel like picking it back up.

Sora's frustration came back to haunt him in his head, making him feel even worse about it all. Riku took a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds.

_No, I'm not going to see if she's okay. Sora's got it covered, like everything else,_ he decided in his thoughts, still not breathing out.

Seconds later, his conscience got the best of him. "Yes, yes I am going to go see if she's okay..." he contradicted, letting out all of the built up air in an annoyed sigh.

"Stupid keyboy's rubbed off on me," he complained dully, impatiently grabbing his white, yellow and blue long-sleeved jacket off a dining room chair.

Walking hesitantly to the front hall, he slipped on his worn sneakers before heading for the door.

* * *

The tall grass engulfed Laura's entire body as she sat on a rock amidst it. Crying, frustrated, afraid and confused, she wiped her eyes, crossed her arms on her legs and buried her face into them.

"He... he couldn't have really meant that... right? My world... HAS to be there, still..." she whispered between hiccups.

She refused to believe that the reason the path had appeared was because her world was falling into darkness. "Manhattan can't just disappear whenever it wants to."

She took a deep breath, not wanting to cry anymore. Releasing all of the air she had taken in shakily, she got up to her feet. "That's ridiculous!"

Just as she was about to walk out of the grass onto the brick path, she saw Sora...fly...right...past her? _No, that isn't right_.

She shook her head, and began to stray away from the path... and away from town.

After pushing away countless stalks of the tall, wispy grass, she watched the remnants of orange, yellow and reds fade off with the already set sun.

"So pretty, for somewhere so foreign... Almost surreal." she remarked, awestruck by the sky's slowly disappearing warm hues.

"Hey! Lady! Lady!" a young voice called out to her and she bolted around, scared half to death.

She looked down in front of her to see two kids: a boy, who looked about 8, and a girl who looked about 4 or 5.

They both stared at her for a moment, causing her to think she had something on her face. Feeling around her face for anything, she found nothing.

"Who _are_ you?" the girl shouted, scaring Laura once again. The two kids both laughed hard at her reaction. She quickly regained composure, an annoyed look on Laura's face.

"M-my name is Laura..." she stammered, and knelt down to their height.

"Who are _you_?" she asked the two. The girl stepped forward with one foot, hands confidently (comically) on her hips.

"Kira!" she replied valiantly, her thumb pointing to herself. Laura painfully turned the other way, towards the sky, in embarrassment for the girl.

_Oh golly._

The boy pulled on Laura's pyjama bottoms impatiently due to the inattention. "My name's Toby, Lowa!" he told her excitedly.

Laura smiled at his inability to pronounce her name. _Lowa. How cute._ "Now what are you kids doing playing in the grass here? The sun's setting, you know!"

The girl smacked her hand onto her face, sliding it down. Laura almost cracked up.

"Toby! No, we gotta get home now! Mommy's making dinnah!" she exclaimed rather dramatically to her assumed brother, grabbing his hand and pulling him away.

Toby turned around, and waved his free arm towards Laura as he was being so desperately pulled away by his sister. "Bye Lowa!" he yelled back to her. Laura simply waved back.

_What strange kids... Just where am I?_ she thought to herself, turning around.

As the wind began to pick up at multiplying speeds, she quickened her pace through the grass as she approached a large forest.

She hadn't noticed, however, the fast-approaching, intimidating shelf cloud just behind the mountains.

* * *

"Laura," Sora called out in the market streets, "Laura! Come on out, he didn't mean it!"

It had been two and a half hours since Laura had run off after what Riku had said to her, and he could've sworn he had passed the same fruit stand about sixteen or seventeen times before the current time. He was exhausted.

He kept thinking about the same thought over and over again: _Why would Riku be _that_ rude... and to a girl?_

Each time he had thought about it once more, he became even more frustrated with him.

It wasn't like Riku to have acted like that. _I mean usually he wooes all the girls, like some 'ladies' man'..._ he stopped to grimace out of frustration, but quickly continued on.

Sora walked over to the cheese merchant a fourth time to ask about his new-found, blond-haired friend, but was let down another time.  
Standing in the center of the market street, Sora put his hand to his chin.

"No one has seen her... how could she just... disappear?" he asked himself, puzzled. The breeze took a turn for the worse, turning into a slight chill.

Groaning, he looked up to the wall of dark, intimidating thunderclouds climbing over the mountains at a threatening speed. The bottoms of the clouds then began to pour themselves out, forming virga on the underside.

"No way... a typhoon? Now?" he complained uneasily. He had completely forgotten.  
His mom had warned him about the forecast she had heard on the radio the previous night.

To Sora, the danger of Laura being on her own without any sort of protection grew even more severe than before.

_She'd never survive in this weather without shelter,_ he feared, clenching his fists. _I've gotta find her!_ he turned towards the only option left: the forest. He was about to dash off in the direction of the tropical forest just as two little kids rushed to his side.

"Sora! Sora! Hey, Sora!" the one little boy called to him, tugging on his baggy pantleg.

Sora turned around, smiling at the boy. "Sorry, kiddo, I've got a friend to find right now," Sora gestured away from him, but the other kid persisted.

"We know, we know!" she continued for the boy, "we seen her when we was playing in the grasses." The boy grew a bashful look on his face. "Her name was Lowa," he added, proud of himself for remembering her name. The look on Sora's face evidently displayed that her name rung a bell.

_Lowa... Lowa? ...Laura!_

Sora's face lit up with hope and knelt down to their height.

"Oh, you did? Where did she go?" he asked, and the girl grew a guilty look on her face, as if she weren't supposed to tell.

"She goed to the forest, Sora..." she replied, rather quietly and slowly. Sora's expression darkened. "She did, did she?" he mumbled, his gaze shifting to the ground.  
The boy tugged at his sleeve.

"Sora, mum says that I'm not allowed at the forest, especially at night." the boy said, trying to be serious. The little girl placed both hands on Sora's knee, leaning on his leg.

"Please save her, okay? She lookeded scared..." she whispered, worried about Laura. Sora nodded.

"Thanks, guys," he replied, "now you two run on home, because there's a storm coming!" the two kids nodded, and hurried off.

"Bye, Sora!" the two kids called back to him as they ran for home. He smiled back to them and waved. He was always good with kids, no matter what world he visited.

He had never noticed it previously, but if it wasn't for this ability of his, he wouldn't have been in the place he was now: back home. He smiled, more confident than before, and turned to the direction of the overgrown tropical forest. Running at top speed, he quickly left the Market Square, and the city.

Making his way through the grass circling the city, he warmed his arms and legs up, twisting his neck around, readying his body for easy manuvering.

The forest covering the base of the mountains was dense, and hard to travel through. He recalled a narrow path climbing the steep vegetative terrain from a hiking trip he and Kairi had gone on. Sora had planned to climb to the top of the mountain, trying to impress Kairi.

He then remembered how much of a mistake that was, as he had to carry a tired, sore and inexperienced girlfriend all the way back home. Snapping out of distraction and embarrassment, he stopped in front of the forest.

He quickly studied it for the closest entrance, and exhaled calmly. "It's not like this time is any different. I've been in there plenty of times." His gaze wandered up into

A fast-approaching silhouette came closer and closer to Sora from the path in the grass. Upon closer inspection, Sora's eyes widened.

"Riku!" Sora called out to him, but a high gust of wind drowned him out. Riku noticed him, nonetheless, and came rushing towards him.

"Have you found her?" he asked Sora, rather desperately. Sora gave him a look.

"Since when do _you_ care?" he pouted, crossing his arms and turning his back to him. Riku cleared his throat.

"We need to, you know, bring her to the king like he suggested in the letter. So, uh, we gotta find her." he explained, rather awkwardly.

Sora grew a sly grin, keeping his back to his friend in denial. "So, you actually care, now?" Sora joked around. Riku scoffed, crossing his arms and looking to his side. "Whatever," he mumbled, but Riku knew his friend all too well to know that he was grinning.

"Of course it isn't _just_ because the king wants to see her. Admit it! The _stone-cold avenger_ has feelings." Sora gave Riku a quick mischievous smile.  
But before Riku could smack him upside the head, he ran off down the street towards the forest.

"Now come on! We've gotta find her before all heck breaks loose." Sora shouted towards the forest, waving his right arm about to get Riku to follow him.

Riku sighed, annoyed, but smirked to himself before running off after him.

He knew Sora was right about all of it. Something struck him differently about that girl... But it didn't mean it was for the better.

* * *

"Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to run off like that..." Laura mumbled to herself, walking aimlessly through the steep mountain forest. She rethought what she had just said, thinking of how Riku made her run off.

_What a jerk. Why would you say something like that to someone you had just met?_! _Boys._

Her head jerked in the direction of small stones crumbling away from the narrow, steep path she helplessly followed. "Close call..." she mumbled, and sighed.

Things weren't right. At all. Even after all that was said and currently being done, something _different_ wasn't sticking right. She felt emptier, as if a large chunk of her had crumbled away, like the path she tread carefully across.

"Maybe he's right... What if Manhattan is gone?" There had been many times during her escape that she had come close to slipping down the hills, so she crept along the paths with even greater caution. Unsure of her whereabouts, she took a left turn into a small cave.

It was much darker than the forest, which brought her through a curve and to the outside forest once again.

"What if my home is really...gone?" The wind began to pick up almost exponentially, which brought more fear and anxiety to Laura than before. "I can't believe it if it's real..." She frowned, upset.

"What he said... That's impossible, right?" she asked herself, desperate for an answer. She didn't know the answer to that. She also didn't know the answer as to how and why she got to this foreign, dangerous place.

The forest she ventured through grew very dark, very quickly, snuffing out almost any remaining skylight from shining in. Passing a crooked tree, she stopped. Growing a grimace, she grazed her hand across it.

"I think I've passed this already..." she contemplated, giving into what her mind screamed._ Laura, you are SO lost._

_Lost_.

That word described so many things in her current situation. Lost girl. Lost her way. Lost her home. Lost her friends. Lost the only bit of family left. Losing her mind. Losing grip of her will to go on... She groaned. Her legs were in a considerable amount of pain from all of her narrow trail maneuvering.

Continuing up the dark forest trail, she gained sight of a clearing. Running up the steep path, she caught sight of the sky, and froze at what she saw.

Just beyond the tall mountain she caught sight of one of the largest shelf clouds she had ever seen. Stepping back, intimidated and shocked, she forgot about the fact she was walking up a steep trail.

Letting out a small yelp as he lost her balance, she fell backwards down the hill. _No...no..._ "No! Not this way!" she screamed as she fell from the high cliff.

In desperation of possibly saving her life, she spun around, her stomach facing the impending ground. She quickly spotted and grabbed onto the branch of a tree, temporarily stopping her fall.

Her arms felt the sharp pain of restraint, as her fall from such a high cliff gained quite the force of descent. She cried out in agony, her arms protesting so, but managed to hold her own onto the branch. Thanking the heavens for the extra fitness class she took last semester, she slowly lifted herself onto the branch.

She could barely feel her body at this point. _Can things get any worse for me?_

Just as she pondered this, the damp wind that slightly refreshed her before grew quickly into a heavier downpour, drenching Laura from head to toe through the dense treetops.

"Great, just what I need... to get sick!" she yelped angrily, but her shaky voice demonstrated how tired she really was. _This is not good..._ she thought, exasperated. _I am never hiking ever again. **Never**._

Today was a long day. Why wasn't she safe in her own bed, dreaming of showing up to her final exams in underwear like every other normal kid?  
She wanted to see Adam again.  
She wanted to eat some of the chili he had made.  
She actually _wanted_ to go to school the next day.  
She wanted to see Leo again.

Oh, how she missed him. Her best friend. Her only true friend. How she wished he was here to help her.

Her thoughts of home and safety had distracted her. she ignored the fact that the torrential downpour had lubricated the tree branch she held so dearly onto, and began to slowly tilt to one side.

Laura yelped as her grip on the branch began to loosen. "No...n-no-no!" she stammered, shivering, desperately trying to regain her grip on the branch. She inevitably slipped down, jolting her into a dangerously risky hanging position.

The rain fell down even harder as each second passed, the wind picking up incredible speed from every moment. The fates were not with Laura at this particular moment. Her heart raced as she weighed the odds of her death.

They were pretty high.

"Why... why does it always friggin'...rain with me?" she screamed out desperately over the harsh rain and winds. With all of her strength, her knuckles turned bright white as she brought herself up onto the top of the branch once again.

Holding on to it with all of her strength as it swayed about, she didn't dare look down.

"..aura...ra..!Are...ere? Lau..ra...Laura!"Laura raised her cold, stiff head towards the direction where she heard a sound. "Someone's...voice?" she choked.

The rain pattered and pattered against her weakening body, which was losing all feeling by the second due to the cold. "Is someone...there? Help...feels like I'm sedated...or...something," she choked out, shivering, "Come get me...please..."

"Hey! I think I heard a voice! Sora! C'mon!" a familiar voice cried out in the opposite direction of where she was facing.

"Hello...Hello! Help me..." Laura managed to cry out to the voice. She felt her eyesight slowly fading, and her grip loosened on the branch.

She clinged onto the branch for dear life with the last of her strength, but it wasn't enough. She was slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Oh, jeez! Sora! I found her!" the once rude voice she remembered from earlier that day now held a great deal of worry.

"No! No! She's going to slip off!" another familiar voice cried, earning a faded yelp of shock from the worried boy."Shit, no!"

"Sorry...I can't...hold on anymore, Sora, Riku..." Laura slurred, her eyes closing and her muscles loosening.

Her fingers, legs and arms began to cease their feeling completely.

"Save me."

Laura felt herself slip sideways off the branch, falling with the rain that fell with incredible might, but did not hit the ground to impending death.

* * *

**A/N: So...yeah, review, my followers! Bahaha!**


	8. Resent

_"You were supposed to lure her away from her crumbling world. That was ALL you were asked, eleven."_

_The masked, rose-haired figure didn't so much as move. He was guilty._

_"You've done it before with failed guesses from other reaches of that broken, hopeless world, you fool. Why did this operation end in so much wrong?"_  
_A stack of old, decrepit papers and study folders were violently swept clean off of a strange-looking desk._

_"My liege, circumstances changed, a-and elements that were never a part of the plan seemed to meddle themselves into what I think-"_

_"Quit your rambling, you useless coy. I saw what had happened, and you know how I feel about failure."_

_The masked figure took a step back, but regained composure and took two steps forward._  
_"I apologize to the maximum of my abilities. It won't happen again."_

_Windows to the back of the space opened, sending a chill breeze into the damp, old stone room._  
_"I expect you know what to do, if you value what I have so selflessly given you."_

_"Sir."_

_

* * *

_

"The thought of that wretched being, so out of place giving me orders, and then scolding me like some child in trouble - of all people! - makes my blood simply boil out of the pot. Sure, I let her slip, but that was because that stupid friend of hers pulled her out of the make-believe I had implanted within the park..."

It was all too perfect.

"She was the one, and I had let her escape..."

The masked man ceased his pacing back and forth in a dank, decrepit, rotting space of darkness, and stood still. Inhaling sharply, he stormed towards a fading, blackened dead tree amongst the terrain of the same fate.

Holding all of his strength in his clenched left fist, he punched right through the tree, causing it to crumble away like blackened sand in the wind. He screamed in frustrated agony. "Why now? The odds were all on my side!" he yelled down to the pile of blackened dust. "That's not what I wanted!"

Kicking it in a hateful manner, he walked away from it. "It was all according to plan. I let her spot me on the street before school, and found her in the park..." He found himself once again in paces going back and forth, only this time his pace was quicker, his strides longer.

"I had her in the palm of my hand... she was so mesmerized by the blazing crystal I had shown her! She wanted to know more. She wanted to see more. She knew it wasn't anything from this...dirty, decrepit, lost cause of a world," he recanted to himself, holding out his hand to reveal the same bright red, star-shaped crystal he had shown her, "and was willing to trust me. I could sense it in her heart."

His masked face shot up to his side, revealing a doll-like personification of a brown, shaggy-haired boy in his view. "But you..." The masked man sounded almost amused, bringing his pacing back and forth to around the motionless, emotionless, soulless doll. "You." He stopped in front of the doll, lowering his masked face down to the doll's emotionless face.

"You just had to step in, and ruin everything I had planned..." his voice dropped the amusement, and once again became cold. Heartless. He took a hold of the figure's chin.

The man snorted. "You brown-haired brats. All the same. All a part of the plan, that i had planned so carefully!" he explained to the lifeless figure, turning his nose up at it. "But all you want is to have it your own little way..."

"Your way or the HIGH-"

The man paused mid- sentence, and with lightning speed a scythe appeared in his hand,

"WAY!"

and sliced the doll's head clean off of its body. The figure's head fell to the ground, but made no sound.

"But now I have it my way, my companion."

The body soon fell to its knees, and then to the ground, greeting its other part. "Heh. Worthless." As quickly as the scythe came into materialization, it had disappeared.

The masked man scoffed at his own actions. "Just look at me." Turning swiftly on his heels towards the spot where the head used to lie, "No," he mumbled as he fixed his khaki colored pants, and his argyle sweater was soon to follow, "I don't have time for this..."

"I'll prove to him that I'm much more than the 'smoke and mirrors' he gives me credit for. I'll prove to him that I was worth his time..." His fists clenched, but he let his hands go limp to his sides, realizing the matter wasn't worth the frustration.

"Although..." The man lifted his mask and looked up to the blackened sky. "At least I did do something right," he whispered, his mouth moving into a smirk, "this place looks a lot less... polluted by people. A lot cleaner." He turned to the environment surrounding him, shouting out to it with open arms.

"Don't you think? Isn't it nice to have some peace and quiet, for once? No cars! Exhaust! Music! Horns! Lights! Anything!" The man laughed, almost insanely, towards the sky. He stood there for a moment, frozen in satisfaction, but then drew his arms back down, and regained his solemn, cold expression.

Moving his mask back down onto his face, his shape turned into a dark one- his entire body became drenched in the same darkness that soaked the crumbling world he lingered in. "It's time for me to show that shambling excuse of a master what potential I really have."

"You know, 'Bo peep', I always find you in these kids of seedy places," a cocky voice spoke up from in the shadows, causing the masked man's head to rise up in shock, "and you're always rambling to yourself!" The voice laughed, and the figure it belonged to disappeared from its hiding spot the shadows. "Got a charming imaginary friend you'd like to introduce me to?" the figure asked jokingly, gesturing to the spot that the masked man had summoned the lifeless doll, only to behead it.

"Fuck off. You're not supposed to be here," the masked man snarled, nervous, and once again clenching his fists. Why is he here? Why is he alive? Why now? How did he find me? "I never expected your 'person' to be so... manic depressive. Icky. No wonder you were such a dick in the castle! Ha ha!" the voice materialized in front of the masked man, appearing in the shape of a tall, slim, hooded man.

"You shouldn't be here, Axel, you shouldn't even be alive!" the masked man raised his voice towards the figure, which didn't faze 'Axel'. "Oh, but here I am, beating the odds. It seems as though even when you've been granted your person once again, you're still in a bloody rut," Axel began, "but to tell you the truth, so am I."

He was about to place a hand on the masked man's shoulder when his scythe materialized in his right hand once again. "I'll kill you this time, you bloody bastard, because I have nothing to hide!" The masked man screamed, charging towards the cloaked figure with incredible speed. "Ah-ah-ah," Axel caught him mid motion, slapping the masked man's scythe away in one swift motion, "now why would you do that to poor little 'ol me?"

The masked man could not reply. Axel had jabbed him in the chest with his knee, knocking all of the air out of him. "Hmph. That's fine too. Like I'd want to be introduced to one of your 'friends'." The masked man fell to his knees, the scythe thrown away had disappeared. Clenching his chest in attempt to regain his lost air, he gasped and wheezed.

The cloaked man stood above him, and kicked him to the ground, earning a cry of pain from his prey. "Listen. I came here to check up on an old 'colleague', and you charge at me like some crazed animal!" Axel began to raise his voice, but his voice only held pretend anger. "I figured you'd know where my person is!"

He slouched down to the masked man's body, heaped on the dark ground. "Do you know how shitty it is to live like this? Like a shell?" his voice seemed to rise and rise like a fire being fed with more air by the second. "Dude, I'm a fucking trench coat! I am this coat. Right now, this is me. Do you know how shitty that is?" The masked man simply groaned in pain, extending and retracting his leg in attempt to gain some leverage.

"I can feel my person somewhere. Somewhere, somehow, I'm still alive..." Axel mused, somewhat sounding hopeful, staring up at the sky. "You'd think a friend would help a friend, right?" He mumbled, shifting his gaze back down at the man. "G-go... find your own... friends," he choked out with great effort to the man standing above him. Axel scoffed.

"Fine, have fun finding your way out of here, person. Don't expect any help from me." he bid farewell rudely, and held out his gloved hand in front of him, revealing a shroud of black and deep purple mist. Stepping through it, he sighed, disappointed, and the mist disappeared.

He left the masked man, groaning in pain on the ground to fend for himself, as tiny glints of yellow began to pool out of the ground, hissing sounds faintly recognizable.


	9. The wonderful world of confusion

_'Sleep tight, kiddo. I'll check up on you now and then, ya hear?' a quiet voice whispered from a dark corner. _

_'You are my only hope left... there isn't anyone more qualified to help than you... see ya...'_

Laura woke up from the strange, calm sound to find herself on an unfamiliar yet comfortable surface in an unlit room. It seemed spacial. "Where...Am I?"

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out objects flowing parallel to each other to her left. A few more seconds passed, and she made them out to be two thin linen curtains. Sitting up slowly and carefully, she expected some sort of pain, but only felt comfort. The bedsheets covering her were thin and soft to the touch. She guessed them to be white, or a pale grey, as she bunched a section into her hands, pulling them up to just above her chest. "These look expensive... but who do they belong to? Me?" she asked herself in confusion.

_Shouldn't I be in my own bed? Oh, maybe I am... did Adam change my bedsheets while I was sleeping? _

Feeling a tiny itch on her forehead, she let go of the bedsheets and raised her hand up to rub it. She froze when she felt the tough, fibrous feeling of what she assumed to be a band-aid.

_Huh? What the... _

Confused, she instinctively felt around her arms and the rest of her face. "Ow..." she flinched as she grazed a few cuts, scrapes and bruises along her arms. She brought her hands up to her hair, and found it to be brushed carefully and _straight_ instead of her usual knotty bedhead.

_Okay, something is definitely not right here, _she thought to herself as she carefully slid her legs to her right side, and off of the bed. Standing up straight, her eyes had adjusted to the small amount of moonlight shining through the thin linen curtains. Silently tip-toe-ing towards the window, which she had discovered to be slightly ajar, she store out the window and was shocked at what she saw.

Palm and other tropical trees as far as the eye could see, were seen from her left to her right. A vast, starlit ocean rested farther away from the trees, separated by a beach. The distant ocean sky held dark, heavy storm clouds, that seemed to have dissipated from their former splendor and might. She saw a small village of around 20 huts of houses down below her, the scare window still lit. Far to her right was a tall, grassy field, with a winding brick path leading to god knew where. "I'm on a hill? A cliff?" she stopped herself for a moment.

_A tall grassy field... _

At that moment everything rushed back to her. The strange people in her apartment hallways. The strange reoccurring voices. Her strange dream. The portal. Running away from everything. Her world was gone, lost to the darkness in peoples' hearts. Getting lost on the forest trails. The kids that had scared her half to death. Two boys. The red-head girl in her dreams. 'Marly'. The white halls and rooms. A key?

No way of returning home.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, building up and letting loose down her cheeks. "I'm still here... It's all real." She fell back onto the floor. She rested her hands on her upper legs, and realized she was in a plain white dress, instead of her pajamas she had arrived in. Her hands fell to her sides, clawing lightly at the hardwood floor below her. How did I change into this? Her mind raced back to the moment she barely felt herself fall of of the distressed tree branch... and how she didn't feel herself hit the cold, hard ground that waited for her so impatiently.

Running a hand through her hair, she urged her mind to calm down. She was still alive, not drenched in rain, dirt and sweat, not hanging on for dear life, nor was she freezing to death.

This new found feeling inside of her intrigued her. Realizing she was safe. She was never one to count her blessings like she was, sitting on the hardwood floor of an unknown home. _Right, unknown_. _Think, Laura... who were the last people you remember seeing? _It then struck her like a bolt of lightning: she had heard two male voices over the rain, wind and thunder from her treacherous perch so high up in the trees. "Sora...and Riku. They saved me, and brought me back here... Wherever _here_ is." She blinked, her hands moving to grab a hold the night gown she wore in fear.

_If they saved me, then that means they had to..._

"...shut up, idiot, I'm just going to check on her," a familiar voice hushed another behind him from outside the room, whispering "you just checked on her 5 minutes ago, you pervert" and "i'm watching you with wide open eyes, cradle robber" from another room close to hers. Panicking, she ran silently back into bed, covering herself with the covers just so. Only seconds after she readied her scene, the door quietly but surely opened, and then closed behind the one who opened it.

She heard footsteps coming closer and closer to her, which were followed by the boy who came in to sit down on the bed, next to her. She was thankful she had her back turned to her, so he couldn't see how red her face was becoming. She almost twitched when he began to speak very quietly, trying her hardest to keep control of herself. "I shouldn't have made your mind race like that earlier today. It was...wrong, and... I'm sorry," he whispered quietly to Laura whom he thought was fast asleep, "jeez listen to me, apologizing to someone who isn't even listening. This is pathe-"

"I shouldn't have run away." Laura couldn't believe she actually spoke, and blew her cover so easily, just like that. She felt Riku almost fall of the bed in shock and fear. "Shit... you're awake," was all he had to say with a nervous chuckle as she turned around towards him to lie on her back, facing him from below. She crossed her hands together on her stomach and stared him in the eyes. "Tell me what you meant. About Manhattan..."

Riku gulped. "It's complicated, and uh.."

"Tell me. You owe me that much."

"We just saved your sorry ass from your happy perch on your branch, so I think that's enough for one-"

"Drop the tough guy act and tell me."

"...Fine."

Riku looked away, towards the linen curtains, and inhaled deeply. "There are many worlds out there. Manhattan being one of them, and Destiny Islands another," he began, and Laura sat up on the bed to better listen to what he had to say. "Every world houses people. Every person has a heart, and every heart, no matter who you are, houses both light and darkness within them." Riku expected a nod from Laura, but she simply gave him the most blank stare that he had ever seen, even after all of the worlds he had visited. He sighed in annoyance, and got up from the bed. "Come on," he gestured to Laura, who nodded and got out of bed.

Riku walked over to the window, and Laura followed. Once she was able to see clearly out of the window, he looked out of it as well.

"See all of the stars in the sky?"

Laura nodded. "Yeah. What about em?"

"Every star you see out here is actually another world."

Laura blinked. "Seriously?" she was ready to believe anything at this point, if it got her safely back home.

Riku smirked at her lack of knowledge, but didn't take it for granted. Only a few people knew of the world order. "Yeah."

"So then, what about Manhattan," Laura brought up, crossing her arms and looking down to the low window sill, "will it come back?"

Riku's grin from before turned into a frown. He didn't know how to put what he was going to say.

"Laura, I've been to Manhattan once before with an old friend," Riku began, turning to her, "and I can't say that even I felt welcome there. So much darkness... it was almost overwhelming."

Laura frowned. "So you're saying..."

"It's highly unlikely. You were lucky you escaped." her frown took a turn for the worse, and she turned around, moving towards the bed, and sitting down. Riku was about to think of something to say in attempt to comfort her, when-

"Alright lovebirds, that's enough! Now what's going-" Sora took a moment to notice the solemn look on Riku's face, hands in his pockets in inability to know what to do, and the frown on Laura's face, "...on?"  
Riku took long, quick strides towards the door. "I was just leaving," he answered quickly, but was stopped. "No. Please stay, both of you." Laura's frown was still visible, her hands intertwined in discomfort. Sora gave Riku a 'please just stay' look, and Riku shifted a little, but then followed Sora to sit down. Riku quickly turned on the bed-side table light, and sat down on one of the guest chairs. Sora followed, and gave Laura a reassuring smile.

Laura cleared her throat. "Riku's told me that he's pretty sure that Manhattan is gone. For...good." Sora looked down to his side. "I'm sorry Laura, it's not your fault." Laura exhaled shakily, and shifted a little. "So, what about my guardian? My best friend? Are they gone, too...?" Sora felt her pain all too well, giving a shamed sigh. "Think of the last time you saw your grardian and your best friend," Sora asked her, and Riku continued, "were they in high or low spirits?"

She closed her eyes, guessing the answer to hers. "Adam was down about his mother being in intensive care at the hospital for a week then, and Lionel seemed to be feeling like he usually did..."

Riku leaned forward in his chair, gaining her attention. "It's tough to know from just that, but whether or not their hearts were strong enough... would decide if they're still out there, somewhere." Laura nodded quietly, but then a question arose in her head. "You guys are always talking about hearts, and how they have light and darkness in them... and Sora," he nodded, "you said I have a special kind of light. Is that why I was able to escape?"

The two boys blinked at each other, not sure how to answer that. Laura got up from the bed, and touched her heart. "I was standing in the kitchen back at my apartment, late at night, to get a drink, and then..."

"Then?" Riku blurted out, and Sora nudged him, as if he was saying 'shut up, just watch'. Laura nodded. "Then, I heard a voice. It told me to trust the light, and it would show me the way. I- I didn't know what to do, other than going towards my door, which unlocked itself, and then..." Laura was lost for words at that moment, and felt slightly strange. Sora quickly turned off the bedside table lamp, which shocked both of the teens in the room with him. "Uh, Sora?" Riku questioned, which was followed by a confused look from Laura. Sora turned his confused friends' face towards Laura, and immediately his eyes widened.

"Laura, you're..."

Laura looked down towards her chest, and whispered out, "glowing." Never in her life would she have guessed she would glow in the dark, like the stars on her ceiling. "Is this... it?" Sora got up, and turned to Laura. "This is what I was talking about. As soon as you started to talk about the voice you heard, I had a feeling." He gave a big smile, and moved towards the bed-side table to turn the light back on. Riku didn't know what to say, he just simply sat down once again, looking a mixture of confused, amazed, and exhausted. "The king was right."

Laura shook her head, and she stopped emitting the small amount of light. "Guys, what does this mean? What am I going to do?" Sora walked over to the door, and stopped in front of it, facing Laura. "Tomorrow, we set out for Disney Castle! We need to get some well-earned sleep right now though. G'night!" As soon as he opened the door, he was gone, which left the two remaining teens awkwardly alone. They stood there, silent, for a few moments, before Riku quickly strode towards the door. "You heard the boss. Get some sleep now," he bid before slowly closing the door after him, his footsteps audible down what she assumed to be a hallway.

Laura flopped backwards onto the bed, arms outstretched. She let out an exhausted sigh. "I have light... I glow, for crying out loud..." She slugged up towards the pillows on the bed, and turned to her left side once again.

Slipping into the covers, she shifted until she was comfortable. "What a mess..."


	10. Could'ves, Should'ves, and A new Path

Silence.

It crept along his body, ceasing his every thought and action. There was no sound, as if the darkness, in turn, had also swallowed all sound from the dead-end world he lingered in. He had always taken it for granted; he could never keep his mouth shut to begin with. But that was before. That was before his whole secure life fell to nothing, and he wound up with 11 other hapless shells of the same fate, who rose together to take a stand.

But for what?

He had asked himself this countless times after another while he was still in the order, but could never choke up and answer... or really give enough of a shit to think of one.

A lone figure sat on a ruined, gargantuan heap of a once majestic, intricate white castle, now ripped and torn away from its splendor. It sat alone, heaped, weeping in front of the moon in the sky, its center gaping and bruised like a mishandled fruit. The forbidden fruit... that's how he treated it. You were never allowed to reach to the tip top of the structure, unless you physically _were_ the superior.

It was off-limits to all 12 other members, unless you were called up for a special gathering, which ended in the superior making a big, voodoo-licious party out of it. It was never his style, so he usually crept away. Everything, in time, also started to creep away... his trust in the order, his standings, his faith, his friends...

_"No one would miss me."_

_"That's not true! ... I would."  
_

The hooded figure leaned back, looking up towards the starless sky. "I still do."

The thought of his blond-haired friend pained him, causing a sinister sensation to crawl about as it pleased through his empty, forbidding soul. He was racked with the idea of getting him back by all means possible, the regret and loneliness soaked into his cloak like the darkness that coated every detail of land around him. He wished so much for his happy memories to become a reality once again.

Happy.

He remembered happiness from his teenage years, the years he longed for so desperately. If he had a heart, he would have felt pain in his heart for the friends he lost, all to a huge mistake.

_"'This yours?"_

_"Uh..."  
_

_"You were playing with this junk? What a baby. I've got these: Ta-da! Cool, huh?"_

_"Yeah? Yours are pretty lame, too."_

_"I've got a name you know, it's Lea. Got it memorized? What's your name?_"

"..."

_"Alright ..., time for some one on one._"

_"Huh? Why do I have to fight you?_"

_"What? Are you chicken? Come on! Let's do this..." _

_"Hmph."_

_"Oh! So your gonna do it."_

_"Yeah! __You'd better not cry!"_

His name... Why couldn't he remember his name? The thought of that boy racked his brain so. Desperately he would want to blurt out "Roxas", but the name didn't seem to fit anymore. That name was a lie. "And when he left..."

Everything after that particular moment seemed so vague, like a large piece of what was left of him, left of nothing, was stolen away at that particular moment. He barely remembered fading away in the dark corridors, a friend at his side, watching him slowly drift off.

_"Try keeping the stray dogs you meet to a minimum."_

_"I wanna be a part of a lot of peoples' memories. If I do that, I'll live forever!"_

The memories inside of him were the only long shot of life still inside of his opaque cloak. They were, to him, the only reason he continued to linger about.

_"Well, you may be a small part of my memories, but you'll never disappear."_

The man inhaled deeply, held his breath, and exhaled sharply. Sitting up again, in his usual slouch, he studied his leather gloved hands, as opaque as the rest of him. He flipped them around a few times, studying each side. His body felt hollow, was hollow, yet his memories still shaped the cloak to a t.

He closed his eyes, his mind traveling to a lefty seat high up on a tall clock tower, overlooking a small hamlet and lush, green hills as far as the eye could see. He always arrived there towards the evening, the twilight hues soaking the land as far as the eye could see. The sunset - oh, the sunset! - he smiled in his thoughts as he watched the breathtaking view of the sky's warm, embracing colors.

To his left, a teenage boy, just as lost as he was, handed him a blue ice cream bar. Salty, but sweet. Bittersweet, like their friendship, going back more than a decade. Bittersweet, like his newly found purpose - to regain the friendship that had vanished from his grasp... but at what cost has he already paid? The hooded man took a deep breath inward, and exhaled slowly, embracing this heartfelt memory.

Every day, after his missions, loyalties and severe, exponentially multiplying doubts with the order, he would drop his mask away from his face, sit down and visit this place in hopes of reliving the feelings he would miss so much.

His newly adopted ritual would be to visit the local bars in the dismal, melancholic city, pretending to drink away his whims, regrets, and old memories. Little did his entourage know that the drinks he drank simply vanished upon coming into contact with his cloak. Just like the drinks he had pretended to drink, the city he lingered inside of, in its own way, also began to embark on its final voyage into the void. Was that also his destiny to come to realize?

However, ever since his 'accident', he had to switch rituals, which brought him to the pile of gray and white rubble he once called home. A long time ago, he could walk into his quarters, forget all that stuck to his mind like tiny, impending leeches, and banish everything away in sleep.

They had always asked him why he slept so much of the day,_ him_ especially. Hell - if it were up to him, he'd fall asleep and hope to never wake up at this point - if it meant he could dream of normality again. Mediocrity in his old neighborhood. The big town squares, the fountains, little kids running around, moogles stationed at the shops, all of the green...

His soul smiled, recalling his teen-age memories he longed so much for once again. If only he could go back - if only he would've convinced his friend otherwise-

The figure's fists clenched, and violently pounded the rubble on which he sat. "I could have done better-" he cut himself off, choking on his words as if they pained his lungs to spit out, "-I could have prevented _this_." Gesturing to himself, the air around his hands began to flutter, heat flowing out of his fists. He sat like this for a moment, generating an unnatural amount of heat, but ceased all action, giving up on his temper.

_If only we weren't curious..._

Arms laid limp by his sides, he fell back onto the rubble, staring once again up towards the broken heart-shaped moon looming above. "This time, there isn't any room for that."

"I'm getting my real buddies back this time."

* * *

_THUD_

Riku, having woken up early, shifted his attention from the coffee held close to his lips to the unexpected blunt noise coming from Laura's guest room. He shrugged it off, and proceeded to take a drink with a smirk on his face.

Yelping in a jolt from her landing spot beside the bed, Laura gained the consciousness she needed to pry herself up from the floor. "I'm up! I'm up," she groaned, and rubbed her behind. Reaching high up above her, towards the ceiling, she stretched her entire body. She sighed in comfort.

"Wasn't that just the bee's knees!" she laughed, and made her way to the window. Despite the raging storm the evening before, the sky was a crystal clear blue, reflecting off of the ocean with such splendor Laura had only seen in the movies. "Geez..." she whispered to herself, "Just like a resort... except I _landed_ here," before turning around to move towards the door. Opening the door, she hardly expected to be pounced on by a sweet smelling new face.

"My gosh, you're awake!" a cheery voice cried out, and its owner quickly let go of an almost blue Laura. "Sorry!" Rubbing her head, she nodded. _Yeesh, the death grip on her! _

"My name's Kairi! I'm Sora's and Riku's friend." She held a hand out to Laura, who took it. "My name's Laura, nice to meet you!" she replied with a smile. Kairi looked like she didn't know what to say. After a second of silence, Kairi nudged Laura along, and moved along with her."C'mon!" She smiled apologetically once again before running off down the small stairs to a white-tiled floor._  
_

"We were really worried about you, Laura," Sora, mouth half-full with food, called out from what she assumed to be a kitchen across the small set of stairs she sat in front of. "How are you feeling?"

Getting quickly down the stairs, she made her way over. "I'm not dead, so I'm good!" she was answered by a laugh from both Sora and Kairi. "That reply reminds me of someone," Kairi mocked Sora, and he simply stuck his tongue out, "yeah, yeah" and continued to root through a large, white fridge. Laura couldn't help but smile in amusement at Sora's determination in his quest for food, as he dug deeper and deeper in the fridge. "No! Who ate those? I put those there..." he sighed inside the fridge, but continued his search.

"So, Whose house is this?" Laura asked, examining her surroundings. _Whoever decorated this place __has issues with white._..

"Mine." Riku sat at the island stationed at the center of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hands. "And Sora," he received an "mm" from the fridge, "I hope you know that you're buying me groceries after that... and paying my electricity bill." Suddenly Sora let out a "ack!" of surprise, knocking his head on the inside of the rubbed the top of his head in pain.

"Yikes! Suddenly I don't feel so hungry..." Both Kairi and Laura laughed, and Riku sat there on his stool and smirked. "Listen to you! You sound like your old man already and you're only what, seventeen?" Riku rolled his eyes.

"Eighteen. You think you'd know how old your best friend is!" Sora laughed nervously, but then regained his cheery disposition, closing the fridge door with grapes in his mouth. "Must be a seventeen-year-old thing, I guess." This made Riku laugh a little as he drank his coffee.

Laura smiled as she sat on an empty stool at the other end of the table. Something about where she was at that moment made her finally feel safe, something she never really felt in Manhattan.

"I never realized how beautiful the islands are here... where did you say we were again?" asking where she was made her feel slightly awkward. _It's on my need-to-know basis, though!_ Kairi became interested in the newly brought up conversation, and leaned onto the island beside Laura.

"Destiny Islands, of course! Sora, Riku and I grew up here." Sora nodded, and swallowed his food. While taking a sip of his coffee, Riku nudged over a bowl of fruit towards Laura and Kairi. Laura took a couple of grapes of her own from the juiciest pile of grapes she had ever seen. Kairi followed up to take a small peach out of the bowl.

"Yeah! Home base. Before we go," he began, putting his glass that once contained orange juice into the nearby sink, "we'll take you back to where you fell. It's one of the islands we'd have play on when we were kids." Excited to get a grand tour, she nodded, thoroughly enjoying the fruit she was eating.

"Sure, why not? Maybe grumpy here will cheer up, too." Laura stared him in the eyes playfully, and Riku rolled his eyes once again. Kairi nudged Laura mischievously. "I like her!" Riku rose his eyebrows as he stared down his empty coffee cup.

"Don't mind him, he's impatient in the morning..." Kairi whispered in Sora's ear, while giving him a silly look. Laura chuckled a little bit.

Getting up from the island, Riku walked to the left of the kitchen, and into what Laura assumed to be a front hallway. Sora gulped down another glass of orange juice and looked kind of frantic. "We're leaving already?"

He was answered with a bit of shuffling in the front hall. "Yeah, get your shoes on, we're going!" Laura paused for a second, staring down at the small white nightgown she still wore. Kairi immediately picked up on this, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're going to stop by my house beforehand to get you some clothes, don't worry!"

Laura sighed with relief, but felt guilty. "I don't want to impose! Surely I-" Kairi hushed her. "My treat! Now let's get your shoes," she decided, running off into the front hall with the two others. Laura wore a surprised expression on her face.

_These people are giving the shirts off their backs for me - literally! _She thought of her friends in Manhattan. _My friends rarely acted like this, unless they needed help with something, or I was sick..._

"C'mon! I got your shoes right here, let's get going! There's so much for you to see!" Sora exclaimed from the front hall, overly excited as he seemed to usually be. Laura smiled wholeheartedly and ran to them.

Slipping on her orange-yellow circa sneakers, which, of course, did not go at all with the nightgown she wore, she followed her new-found friends out of the door.


	11. ap's coffee break

Hey guys!

Sorry that the plot's been kind of slow so far... I had a serious writer's block for most of 2010, and now I'm starting to get back on track with my ideas. I've got some ideas about how I'm going to use the tidbits from Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded to relate to events from Birth by Sleep, to my fanfiction plot, which (obviously) takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts II/immediately after Re:Coded (since this game portrays when something caused Mickey to realise another, and so he wrote the letter to the famous keyblade master).

If you're confused about what I just rambled about there, here's a quick diagram:

Birth by sleep

Kingdom Hearts

Chain of Memories

358/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts II

Re:Coded

-My Fanfiction!-

(wow, Square really has produced alot of games for us in this series... I'm starting to be thankful for **SIX** games since 2002!)

I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should keep Kairi with the gang, or not... It really depends on what I decide to do, because she may just end up as dead-weight baggage for the crew (of course Sora wouldn't mind... lololol), although if you'd rather her stay I have a few interesting ideas.

**I'd really appreciate some feedback on the Kairi thing... yay or nay?** ;D And how do you like Laura's character? She's slow to develop, but rest assured she will undergo some changes and realizations soon... that's all I'm saying! Thanks for reading so far everyone! :3

Review me your feedback!

-asteroidpie


	12. Blasting off

Laura stared down at the persimmon-colored dress Kairi had insisted she'd wear. It was a lot similar to hers minus the difference in color from pink to the orange-pink and two white bows at each side. It was a tad more to her style despite it being a short dress, so it would just have to do. She wasn't one to complain over donated clothing. In an attempt to seem like she was at ease, she looked out to the water surrounding the boat she sat in. The sun slowly climbed the sky in such a way that it caused its reflection in the crystal clear water to glisten like the finest diamonds. Sora, sitting across from her, noticed the delight in her eyes and looked out to the sun's reflection as well.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it? You won't find a better view of the ocean in any other world." Laura turned to him and blinked.

"So I really am in another world... What does that mean to us, anyway? That we're in another world apart from mine?"

"Well, let's see... the best way to explain it would be..." Sora began to think, and made it very apparent to all three accompanying teens that he was by the expression on his face. Riku's interest perked as Sora came to the easiest way to explain.

"A long, long time ago, every world was physically connected as one giant world with many different nations." Laura nodded with this first bit of information as Sora continued. "Everyone was filled with a positive energy, or what we call Light. It's like the power of all things pure and positive, and it's found in your heart."

Laura placed her hand over her heart. "Energy inside my heart?" Both Kairi and Sora nodded towards her while Riku kept his gaze in the direction which he needed to direct the motorboat in.

"That's right, Laura. Some people have a lot of light within them, like myself and Sora. I can feel that you have a lot of light within you, as well." Kairi smiled as she motioned to both hers and Sora's hearts. Their lesson seemed a tad bit elementary to Laura, but a lesson at an elementary level was just what she needed at this point. Any more complication and she my have began to panic once again.

"You forgot something, though. Every living thing has a heart, or a center of energy. Even this world, as well as yours." Laura exhaled, taking the information in at risk of her mind overflowing. If someone in her own world were to tell her this before everything that had happened, she would have called them crazy.

Riku cut in. "But with a light there is always its partner: its shadow, the darkness." Laura became curious as to why Riku had to explain that as opposed to Sora, but brushed it off as she needed to keep her attention.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. And so the darkness eventually took over peoples' hearts and corrupted them, since it's a hard power to control. That caused the world's heart to corrupt as well, so it separated in attempt to save everything that it could. Unfortunately-"

"My world couldn't handle the darkness within it, so it perished, didn't it..." Kairi frowned at Laura's guess.

"Yes, in a way. Our home, Destiny Islands, fell into the darkness a few years ago. The light in peoples' hearts brought it back to life. We'll be able to find your world eventually. The same thing may happen!"

Laura turned away towards the ocean surrounding them, straddling the plank seat and then leaned on the side.

"I wouldn't be so sure. If darkness is the likely cause, my world was doomed from the start. It's not as peaceful, orderly or as clean as Destiny Islands. It's... unclean."

Sora placed his hand on her shoulder, making her turn towards them. She looked down to the bottom of the boat, an emotionless expression on her face. "You're still in shock from everything. Worlds can change. Trust us, please." Sora's serious but caring tone surprised Laura, and she shrugged.

"I'll find it again someday. I'll see for myself if it's changed." Their conversation was halted by the boat reaching dry land.

"Okay, we're here. Let's go." Kairi seemed concerned that Riku's sudden interest back on the boat ride had suddenly vanished. He placed his hands in his pockets and swiftly jumped out of the boat and onto the sandy beach. Laura smiled towards the island on which they arrived. It seemed a lot brighter than when she had first awakened on its soothing beaches.

"If I had this kind of a place to play when I was a kid, then..." she thought of her shady-but-large apartment building, her shady pavement neighborhood overrun by garbage, shady people and small shady little stores that lined each street. She thought of her friends living in lower-than-average income families who she'd always played with in her younger years.

It never occurred to her back then that there had been an invisible barrier between income levels, like the other inhabitants of her apartment had always spoken of. Her kid neighbors had criticised her of her choice of friends in the apartments below them. There had been countless times where she had to defend Shelagh and Lionel from the richer kids' comments and judgements. Why was it that the greatest of people were the ones to suffer the most? The rustle of palm tree leaves above her jogged her memories and caused her heart to sink.

_'Shelagh and Lionel...'_

Other than her early childhood friends, Shelagh and Lionel stuck with her her whole life after Adam had taken her in. Leo had introduced her to their block since his father was a close friend of Adam's. Always laid back with a killer sense of style and of when Laura was not feeling at her highest, he gave her the right amount of comfort and support through her grieving. Blinking up at the light shining between the palm leaves, she thought of the many times her, Leo and Shelagh had spent watching senseless comedies on her widescreen TV. Laura smiled sadly.

_'They always had the best taste in tasteless movies.' _

Shelagh had the perfect humor to Laura. It was unpredictable, silly and a tiny bit sarcastic at some times but it made Laura feel supported, just like Lionel's caring disposition. Shelagh was the 'go-to-girl', as she had named herself, for any kind of feminine-gossipy wishy washy problem any girl would undergo during school years. Either friends would ever let her feelings close up around them, which is something she was truly thankful for. If she hadn't had people like them, she -

Sora gave her a toothy grin and took a hold of her hand, snapping her out of her memories.

"Come on, now! We have to hurry. He hates being late." Sora gestured to Riku, who was already halfway between the forested area and them. Swallowing her inside lamentation from her memories, she gave a fake eager nod.

"Sure! Right." Both teens walked quickly to Kairi's side. All three joined Riku to delve into the forest of dense, green tropical vegetation. Laura began to wonder exactly why they had ventured to this deserted island and kicked herself for never truly asking. Kairi brushed several low branches and plant leaves out of their way while she lead the way for Sora, Riku and Laura. She turned slightly towards Laura.

"I can imagine that you're pretty spooked about the reason we're taking you so deep into the forest," she began, "but you'll know soon enough!" She quickened her pace and was followed by Sora.

"Yeah, _it's_ a surprise that's better left uncovered 'till you see it!" Laura gulped as she remembered several of the lessons Adam had drilled into her head concerning strangers leading girls like her off to somewhere remote. She mentally added in how they had been talking about some power of light as if it was common knowledge. If they had been in Manhattan while they had explained all the information about Hearts, Light and Darkness to her, the three teens may have been locked up inside the nearest loony bin.

She came to an abrupt stop once they reached a small clearing in the forest. In front of her swirled what seemed to be a portal covering the ground, much like the upright portal she had discovered once she opened her apartment door.

"Woah, what is-" Sora grabbed her hand and lead her almost instantly towards the swirl and into it. The two others followed and it expanded to fit them all. In a moment she felt a wash of what she deemed to be a mixture of relief, comfort and peace. Mixed with her newfound excitement and anticipation, her face shone the reflection of light coming from underneath their feet.

"Just look up, and stand up tall." Riku gave a small smirk towards her excitement as if he had been observing a small child's. She quickly did as he told along with Sora and Kairi. He looked up afterward with a small eager smile.

_'Here we go again.' _

Laura felt a breeze-like white energy gently swirl up her body and through her newly straight blonde hair. It seemed like magic. Her thoughts were halted as they all seemed to begin to float slowly upward. She gasped during the second of magical levitation before their bodies were quickly thrusted upward into the sky. She yelped, suprised, while Kairi smiled towards her. She was astounded that the sudden movement hadn't fazed any of them. The light surrounding the four teens engulfed them and disappeared, carrying them to a destination unknown.

"What? Woah..."

Laura's eyes cleared up from the light that had abducted and blinded her to see what she assumed to be a cockpit. She jumped at the fact that she had somehow been seated in a rather strange metallic chair. Her finger traced the glowing mechanical veins on the armrests that matched the rest of her seat.

"Cool, huh?" Laura jerked her head upward to find both Sora and Riku seated in front of her to the left and right, respectively. Kairi sat beside her to Laura's right and gave her an approving look toward her curious expression. Laura smiled a mile-wide open smile.

"Check out these killer seats! What _is_ this?" Sora turned around quickly, reminding Laura of an over-excited small child despite his age.

"It's called a gummiship. Our friends in another world helped us to make this model."

"Gummiship..." Riku stood up from his seat and shuffled in front of Sora's. Sora's cheerful disposition was quickly replaced by a mock glare up towards his best friend.

"You're in my seat."

"Not a chance! I'm driving."

"I don't feel like dying today, so I'd rather you not."

"Honestly! This is truly my spot. Yours is right _there_ and that's _beside_ mine." Kairi rolled her eyes while turned towards Laura.

"This'll take a while."

"I'm not letting you drive the ship. Last time that I made that mistake, it took me an hour to explain to Cid why the windshield had a huge crack the size of your pride in it. Not to mention the steering had damage any _normal_ pilot would've been unable to enflict after like, 20 _years_ of space travel."

"Hey, man! Low blow. Now sit down or go home."

"You should go home."

"GO HOME!"

"I would already be THERE if you'd move your ass-"

Sora gasped mockingly towards his friends' profanity. "Now, Riku, there are ladies present. Sit down."

"Sit-"

"You!"

"Sit dow-"

"_Sit._"

"Si-"

"Sit-"

"THAT is IT!" Kairi jumped up from her spot, let out an angry sigh and picked Sora up by the hood. She threw him into his seat and he tensed up, whimpering for his life, curled up into a ball on the side of the chair. Kairi jolted a turn toward Riku, ignoring the clown of a boy beside them. Laura stifled a laugh but held her hands across her mouth so that none of the teens could hear her. Kairi pointed towards the captain's chair and glared into Riku's eyes.

"Sit down and drive."

Riku's eyes were wide as he turned toward the windshield, took a step backward and stiffly sat down into the driver's chair in front of Laura's. His eyes still wide, Riku gulped and extended his hands out in front of him as if he was gripping an invisible steering wheel. The ground below where his hands hovered shone for a moment before a steering wheel mechanism appeared from the light. Laura laughed in total satisfaction at both the scene that had just played out and the magical appearing act by the steering wheel.

"Now this is what I call a great ship!"

Kairi laughed along with Laura while both Sora and Riku gave each other wary, afraid looks with small nervous chuckles. Kairi sat down beside Laura once more, her laughing becoming more genuine. The boys' laughs gradually escalated to match Laura's and Kairi's until Kairi stopped suddenly, stomping her foot onto the floor.

"I mean it, now DRIVE!" Sora yelped and Riku tensed, immediately pressing a button underneath the wheel, causing the chairs to slide closer to what Laura thought to be the dashboard. Kairi chimed excitedly.

"Positions!"

Her chair moved to the left of Riku's, while Sora moved to his right. Kairi's chair moved to Sora's right. Sora grumbled to himself dur to the fact that he was now second to the pilot, but moved his hands towards the dashboard and hovered them above it. The space underneath his hands shone for a brief moment, revealing many different neon-coloured buttons. Laura could only imagine to what purpose they served.

He gave Kairi a look, which caused her to smile and nod with a "right". Soon after, she too hovered her hands above the dashboard, except instead of buttons appearing beneath her hands two analog-stick-like fixtures protruded from the dash with a flash. Laura blinked in amazement.

"Whoa..." Riku caught a glimpse of Laura's amazement as well as her lack of experience in a gummiship. Unlike himself and his two friends, she hadn't been travelling across worlds for around 3 years.

"Here, do the same thing that the two of them did." he pressed a small neon green button on the dash to his left, and gave her an urging look to obey. She returned his order with a smile.

"Okay, here goes..." Laura closed her eyes and hovered her hands above the dash comically. Her brow tightened as she concentrated, earning a chuckle from Sora. Once the dash began to glow and become replaced by the same type of analog apparatus as Kairi's, she opened her eyes and laughed trimphantly.

"Well take a look at her! She's getting the hang of things." Kairi giggled lightly, congratulating Laura, who gave her a thanking look. Sora grew a mischevious grin towards Riku.

"You better watch out, hotshot, she might take your place!" Riku simply exhaled and pressed multiple buttons that caused the ship's engines and inside workings to whirr. This excited Laura. she grabbed the two analog sticks, raring to go.

What she didn't prepare for, however, was the rollercoaster ride of a feeling she felt in her stomach as the ship seemed to launch itself upward almost instantly after Riku turned the ignition.


	13. Lingering on a whim

**This chapter is going to be really complicated, but if you know Birth by Sleep well, you'll know who's speaking or thinking. Enjoy! Don't forget to review, since reviews help me write :)**

**I do not own anything except for Laura, and these ideas.**

* * *

Countless fist indentations lined a dank grey wall in the hooded man's path as he walked through a high-ceilinged hallway. The indents hadn't been small-natured; his fist penetrated through the ice cold marble walls inches deep as he made his way to destinations unknown. Did he have a reason to react so violently to the scene he walked through? Was it a necessary action to take towards his hallowed dream of a past? He wanted to think 'yes, it was the only way for one of his knowledge and experience to react', but somehow the emotions necessary to evoke such a thought wouldn't be evoked, themselves.

_'My body... it just moves on its own. Every time I'm here, I...'_

His body used to be strong, defined, shapely. It was him as a whole. It used to bring him utmost pride and satisfaction.

_'I walk this path, yet I am not here.'_

He used to feel confident in his abilities. He felt like he could do anything that he put his mind to. He completed every mission perfectly, every task given without any slipups or problems.

_'But that's not who I am. I'm supposed to be...'_

Every ideal he possessed, every idea he thought of... it was perfect. It was the perfect idea of life. Life would have been better for everyone if they would have just let him carry out his experiments, his works of art, his masterpieces. He was so close to perfection. If they would have understood -

_'This is not my body, yet I am here in spirit. A poltergeist who pathetically lingers in a hallowed ruin.'_

If I would have had a chance, I would have explained to them what I was trying to accomplish. I was never a part of his plans... at least in my mind I wasn't. If I even had a few extra moments aside to spend with them to tell them my thoughts, all of this would be different. But what is this? What is the situation I'm speaking of?

_'Like a caged animal I unleash my anger in this prison of a body.'_

This was my plan. It was my doing. It was all supposed to fit together. The pieces were intricate and unique yet each had their own specific purpose. Like my pawns on a game board I commanded them as their king. With an iron fist I commanded, ordered and plotted, yet I face this horrible end.

_'I am dying. My soul is dying, yet this body still remains.'_

His legs ceased their movement of murderous intent, his arms soon after hanging at each side. The opaque black cloak covering his body hung tattered, clawed, torn. His appendages still remained covered despite its sad condition. It confused them both that no matter the damage that came to him, he still remained in one piece.

_'I wish I could see their faces again. I would give anything.'_

A grin crept across his parched, broken lips, revealing erily white teeth for his condition. He raised his right hand to abdomen-level and crushed the air in between his fist. The tendons in his hand strained from the action.

_'Your time is done. I have won our subconscious battle. Or do you not recall?'_

The hand thrust back to his side, once again limp. His back moved slightly forward in a slump like a man hypnotised. His sinister grin had been replaced by a more calm disposition.

_'You seem to forget whose body this once belonged to.'_

The same fist clenched, once again straining the tendons. Their struggle protruded to become visible through his ebony gloved hand.

_'Our problem seems to be your inate sense of perseverance. Why wouldn't you want to fade into the darkness? Doesn't that appeal to you? You sickening, depressed teenage soul.'_

His legs, even visibly defined under his body-length long cloak, trembled in what seemed to be hesitation and restraint before taking a few stumbles forward. After a moment of stumbling his body regained his hypnotized stature.

_'Would a depressed teenager have such will? You underestimate me.'_

_'...'_

The man's body once again took a few hesitant, shaky stumbles forward. After a moment's pause and a grit of teeth a few more had been taken.

_'Your annoying sense of pride grates at my patience so. I grow tired of your constant attempts to pry into my reality.'_

Falling to his knees in what wouldv'e seemed like a weary collapse, he spread his hands wide against the off-white marble floor. It cooled his sweaty palms and caressed his sore knees. His hair, coloured with melded grey and brown, hung over his face and clinged to his cheeks. His body communicated weariness, but his face, anger. After a few moments of his held grimace, his facial muscles relaxed to an eased expression. A small smile crept upon his lips.

_'Your reality, huh... Yeah, judging by how fucked up this body is by now, it really is your fault. It's all your fault.'_

His body became half limp, collapsing in a sorry heap onto the floor. His arms and back twiched ever so slightly.

_'Look at the mess you are making! This is a complete waste of time. It's been fifteen bloody, excruciating years trying to deal with you as well as carrying out my missions. It's been fifteen years and now you choose to fight the judgement, the priviledge that has been served to you?'_

Like a marionnette an unknown forced pulled his arms upward, his shoulders and backbone soon to follow. He rolled upward to a standing position on the balls of his feet. The possessed body stood up straight but his head still lay limp.

_'Come on. Let's go for a walk, you wrinkly old bastard.'_

His head seemed to lead his body's way as it walked limp like a zombie down the hall to a marble balcony that matched the rest of the castle. Intricate mechanical-esque markings decorated tiles of white, grey and blue and divided them unequally. The divisions ran all the way up to the bland, squared off railings, granting them a ghost of design personality even in the destruction the establishment lay in. His hooded head drew upward, slowly, revealing his eyes: stern, hardened eyes, one cat-eye yellow, and one ice blue.

_'Do you see this, you leech? Look at this abomination of a world you've created. All of this is entitled to you. It's your creation! The fruits of your hard-worked effort. And now, look at its condition. Everything lay in ruins... Do you not see my connection? Look,'_

The man strained to shift his body towards an untouched section of the marble walls, finding it suitable to use as a reflective surface. He turned towards the wall and drew back his black hood, at the price of his arms once again becoming limp. The left half of his face, wretched, stressed, sinister, possessed the yellow eye. It grinned proudly towards its reflection through silvery strands of fallen hair once carelessly thrown back. The other half that possessed the blue eye showed a stern, determined, but pained expression. Mid-length brown bangs overhung his face and framed his pained look.

_'I see a body who I chose specifically to use as my next vessel. That's what I could be using it for, as well, so if you would-'_

_'Wrong. Look again. You know what I see? I see what used to be mine. I was supposed to be a messenger of the greater good. I used to radiate a positive aura... Look at how you've tainted me. This is when it's going to change.'_

* * *

Sitting in this null void seems to have given me a lot of time to think and to reflect on myself and of this life. My life... It once had a purpose. I was put into this world to contribute to the pleasant, joyful and willful existence of all living things. I trained hard to become who I was then, long ago, following every command and taking every pointer and suggestion into mind. I was so loyal to my cause, never once straying to the other side. Sometimes I try not to think of it even existing, but ignorance is never bliss. Would I even have been so priviledged to have saved them both from this void if I had been ignorant? Most likely not.

I've spent these lonely years in this prison to meditate. This prison was my price to pay, I hadn't caught soon enough onto the treachery that had been looming around us for as long as I could remember. It could have been nipped in the bud so, so easily, yet he stayed under the radar so skillfully that not even my dear master had truly known.

I had never really felt safe in the castle each time that he came to visit my dear master. It was as if he brought a cloud of tension and negativity into our home. It brought an ill wind to our world. As a child I would follow him through the castle once he was alone. I knew very well that he could sense my presence. He also knew that I had never once trusted him, not once. He was never welcome to me.

The second visit he paid to us, he brought him. Both of us had been so shocked to see someone like him in such a state of shock. Really, he was just like us. We were stricken with confusion and compassion for the poor boy. It angered my friend to see someone the likes of that man to have brought a boy, broken, to us. I could feel that he knew of my uncertainty; I read in his journal that he suspected that that man had put that poor boy in such a state. It was wrong of me to have pried into his mind, I realize, but for some reason I could not bring up the subject in our small talk.

Everything fell apart afterward and I knew right away who I was searching for. Him, and his wretched experiment. That shadow, full of anger, hate, envy, wrath, and all other things negative. The blame was all on them. As soon as I saw that abomination's face, I knew that he did not belong. He was not supposed to be... at least not in that form.

Once someone is separated into their two sides, it's never the same. Never. There are never again two opinions in one's mind, two little people on one's shoulders. Decisions are then one-sided and ignorant. Ignorance... It ruined us all. It destroys trust, breaks connected ties, destroys lives. It destroyed the trust between us, broke our unbreakable connection, and caused me to trigger the transformation of our world into a maze of oblivion.

Was this really what he wanted to happen? I find the idea sickening. So much grief from the action of one man. One sickened, lost man.  
But I smile. Their salvation may not be too far off.

'I've been waiting for someone who could be able to help me.'

_'Who are you?'_

'We're connected somehow, I can feel it. Can you?'

_'I don't understand. Please, tell me your name.'_

'I wish I could tell you. I would like to tell you. Can you lend me a hand?'

_'Please, I want to know.'_

'I know you have what it takes. You have it in you. The light to show us the way. Can you save them?'

_'Save them? Save who?'_

'You can save my friends, can't you? If you can do that, then maybe our worlds have a chance to change.'

_'I feel like I have a duty in myself to help. Maybe that's what you're talking about, but please, let me know your name.'_

'Ask them to tell you everything, so that you can tell me the answer to which you desire.'

_'What... I -'_

'Ask them, my friend, and you shall know.'


	14. Welcome to castle Disney

**Hello! I'm on a roll~! Yeehaw. I'm trying to think of a basic theme that represents Laura, and I'm thinking the piano piece titled "Finale - Working Together" from Piano Collections: Kingdom Hearts. I know it's a battle theme, but I enjoy writing about Laura in high spirits with that song. If you have any other suggestions for like... for instance, a sad piece or distressed piece to represent her character, let me know via review! It's soooo appreciated! :)**

**I only own Laura Letterwood and these ideas. **

* * *

_"Here blanketed by the darkness, sleep is safety. Sleep is eternal. "_

His words lingered in Riku's head, taunting him, attempting to break his solid gaze toward the ceiling above him. Ansem had thrown so many strange statements toward him , but the words he cooed towards his resting being in the darkness before had lingered in his mind. For what reason did it bother him so? The darkness had kept him 'safe', so to speak, from denizens of darkness that had attempted to hunt him down over the years, yet it caused so much pain. The manipulation of darkness, to him, had caused all of the events leading up to that night. It bothered him each time the dark man's words came to his head before he slept, counting that night as the 23rd time it had happened that year.

Riku shifted his body towards the side of his bed, sliding his legs off of the bed and rocking up to a seated position. It bothered Kairi that he had come so accustomed to sleeping in his day clothes. Upon their arrival at the castle she made him swear to at least have his clothes readied for washing, which of course involved removing them. He took small bunches of the simple blue guest pajama pants that awaited him in his guest room (clearly Kairi's doing) into his hands. A small tinge of pink spread across his cheeks, which instinctively made him turn his gaze to his right.

"Hmph. They care too much."

He had to admit it. His friends truly cared for him and looked out for him in any way, even thought they heckled him day in and day out about his apparent 'grump'. Deciding that it was more than time to go for a short after-midnight walk, he raised himself off of the bed, carefully stretching his spine. It cracked lightly, straining his muscles once he regained his proper posture. He scoffed towards the strain.

"Guess I really do have to go for some exercise... this is embarrassing."

Walking silently towards the door, he slipped on the guest water closet slippers and carefully opened the door. He embraced the midnight crisp of the air that filled the hallway-balcony outside his door. With a gentle touch it slightly lifted his hair as he began to walk in the direction he remembered a large balcony to be found. He enjoyed the calm of the after hours of the night since it did not in any way mirror the noise of his usual daytime routines. He truly loved both Sora and Kairi to death, ready to put his life on the line in exchange for the safety of either of them, but their usual chatter wracked at his eardrums so. The constant suggestions, offers of opinions or rejections thereof, quarrels and apologies could easily drive him absolutely insane. Tilting his head upward toward the ceiling and the tall comical pillars of the castle, he thought of her.

It hadn't even been three days since she had joined the three of them. He caught onto how accustomed he was to only having a three-person group he could call his own once she had joined them so suddenly. It intrigued him how she had such good timing: it was the same day that they had received that letter from the King that they had found her washed up onto the shore. She had subconsciously created a portal of light from her world - or was it something else? Someone else?

"None of this makes sense. It just doesn't add up."

It picked at his brain and he frowned in annoyance. It just didn't make sense. She had had no experience whatsoever with the reality of different worlds yet she had been chosen to escape the fate of her own. She was either extremely lucky to have been chosen, or there had been more to her than meets the eye. Theoretically she could have had some sort of ties with the light if relatives, close friends or even passersbys had made direct contact with her heart. He shook his head.

'She said that her world was already full of darkness from the start. So... why?'

Their discussion with the King rang clear in his head. It disturbed him that his assumptions had always been so on the dot with the reality of their situation. It bothered him that his previous knowledge of the darkness itself was so far off of what the King had come up with.

* * *

_"Donald! Goofy!" _

_Sora cried out toward his long time friends after more than a year since he'd seen them. Both the wizard duck and the warrior dog rushed toward the spiky brown-haired boy with plenty of joyful cries and welcomes. After a long embrace between friends, Donald duck jumped down from his friends' arms and gave Sora a look of disdain._

_"You're still in your old dregs! What's the big idea? You in love with them?" Sora huffed with mock insult._

_"Yeah, maybe I am!" He gave a small mischievous smile towards Donald. They both loved to push each other's buttons. This saying held literal meaning to Sora, and it reminded him quickly of his silly acts on the gummiship. Goofy snapped him out of his happy memories._

_"Sora, how've ya been? Never mind this cranky duck," Goofy joked, leaning on his small, feathered friend for support. "We've missed ya!"_

_"Hey!"_

_Sora laughed. It was visible in plain sight that his two adventurous companions from the years past had matured quite a lot. He found Goofy to be a tad bit more battle-hardened, if it were to be possible - in the past, he had a knack for clumsiness, naivety and of course, over kindness. He saw the same dog as he traveled with back then, but this time his back was straight, his eyes proud. His outfit seemed to show a little more seniority with his top half suited with armor. A small badge adorned his left breastplate which had clearly shown he was 'top dog'- Sora laughed internally at his own pun._

_"Well you know... I've been, well, me!" Donald rested his hands on his hips, giving him a one-eyed look._

_"And we know what that means! Getting into trouble and all that, aren't you?" Sora gave him a nervous grin, raising his hands in front of his chest and waving them slightly._

_"Aw, no way! Top cookie right here. But where's the King, anyways?" Donald spat._

_"Wouldn't you like to know! Show some respect!" _

_"Aw, Donald, a'hyuk! I don't think the King minds little ol' him too much."_

_"Yeah, Donald! He's my homedo- err, mouse?"_

_Behind the three friends and their laughter, Laura turned to face Kairi expectantly. She was extremely nervous upon their arrival, both from the thrill of space travel and by the immensely strange castle they had entered. Never would she have thought to have seen walking broomstick servants in her lifetime escorting her from the landing dock to the courtyard, let alone a talking dog and duck. It brought her heart aflutter, her brow becoming slightly clammy from the overwhelming series of events that had raised her strings sky high. _

_"You okay, Laura?" Laura swallowed her nerves, and nodded with a small smile. _

_"Yeah! I'm just trying to take everything in right now. One moment we're on some islands, then we travel through space beyond light speed, and then we're in some sort of castle that looks like something from a dream!" Kairi laughed slightly, taking Laura's left shoulder in her hand comfortingly._

_"I know how you feel, trust me. I used to be in the same boat as you were, but in this kind of life you have to simply... prepare yourself for the strangest things!" Laura placed her hand on hers, thanking her._

_"Yeah, really! Guess I'll have to start thinking like you do."_

_Their small talk was cut off by Riku coming in between them both. He turned to face both girls. Laura could almost sense a tiny shard of excitement within the drone of a boy._

_"We should probably head down the visiting hall to the throne at the end. They're most likely in the other room waiting for our arrival." He pointed through the girls to both the throne at the end of the long, red carpet at the end of the room and to the small adorned door to its right. Laura nodded, taking Kairi's advice._

_"Sure! I'm kind of nervous, but it's exciting." Riku flashed her a small smile, something she found surprising. _

_"We all are. So let's get walking." _

_Immediately after what Riku said, Kairi took a hold of Laura's hand, leading her quickly down the red carpet. The carpet greatly contrasted the white marble walls of the castle, and she gasped in amazement at the simple but beautiful architecture of the visiting hall. Her eyes held complete and total excitement towards the beginning of her own adventure, and Riku enjoyed this. It reminded him of Sora's eagerness, but held a little less hyperactivity and jumpiness than his brown-haired best friend. _

_Kairi's heart skipped beats while she walked down the red-carpeted marble floors. for once in her life, she was able to accompany her best friends on an adventure, no matter how short lived it could be. In her heart she knew that they would most likely ask her to either stay in a safe place or return home, yet she did not care since she could say that she at least entered another world on her own accord. _

_"So I'm guessing that you three travel to different worlds a lot, then?" Kairi smiled. she could see that Laura was trying so hard to keep her overwhelming emotions under control._

_"The boys have traveled to plenty more worlds than I have. Usually they'd tell me to stay home to be safe, but I'd sneak about now and then!" she gave Laura a wink and she laughed. Riku gave a short chuckle in front of them, lazily resting his hands in his pockets._

_"More like becoming the damsel in distress 'now and then'." Kairi scoffed in mock annoyance. Laura caught on to her mocking towards Riku's usual behaviour._

_"Thanks, Riku! Laura must think that I'm some kind of ditz!" _

_All three teens laughed at the situation and they reached the throne where Donald, Goofy and Sora stood. Well, Sora wasn't exactly standing. Instead he kept shifting his hands uneasily in his pockets, fixing his collar, dusting off his baggy pants and ruffling his hair. Donald gave him comments along the lines of his appearance being unable to get any better and Sora shot him a duck joke back. Goofy calmed them both down as the door to the right opened._

_Laura gulped. This was the moment that everything would most likely be explained. The three teens hadn't exactly explained their reason for the visitation to this King, yet somehow she felt the matter to be extremely important. She could picture the King's image in her mind: A tall, broad man with a snow white beard. A large golden crown adorned with many jewels of different colours. On his body he would have a regal cape of royal red or blue, or even both. White fur with black spots would trim his regal cape, and underneath, a strong suit of armor to match Goofy's. She paused for a second to judge whether or not that looked about right in her mind, and then gave a small nod to herself. On his legs he would have velvet pants tucked into King-like boots. On his hands he would possess many rings. Within his right hand, a royal staff or sword would hang. Yeah, that sounded about right. He'd also have big, round black ears -_

_'Wait, what? Big black ears?'_

_Laura's train of thought crashed into the river below once she realised how wrong she'd been to assume this King's appearance. Out from the door walked two small black mice-like animals, one clearly male, the other clearly female. The male, whom she assumed to be the King, wore attire similar to Sora's with more red and yellow hues than Sora's black and blue. He wore no crown on his head, but instead possessed two big black round ears. His shoes were yellow and quite large despite his size. Both mice had long black tails. Following behind him in a ladylike disposure was who she assumed to be some sort of high lady - no, she was most definitely the Queen. On her head, unlike her King, she wore a small golden crown with small jewels. She wore a fluffy, feminine pink ballroom gown, accented by her white gloves and white crystalline slippers. _

_The Queen courteously bowed towards their guests, which all five had graciously and politely returned. The King looked toward both Sora and Riku, nodding his head with a smile that seemed to suit both himself and his Queen. Riku smiled wide._

_"King Mickey!" The short King walked in a waddle-like way towards the boys, looking up to them and smiling once again._

_"Well hello, folks, I see you've received my letter! And in good time, too," he looked back towards his cheerful Queen, who had been chatting with both Kairi and Laura, "shucks, we've been running ragged trying to get things all straightened out in terms of our discussion." Sora's face became curious._

_"Yeah, you weren't very descriptive in your letter to us: __  
__"My dear friends, we have grasped some very disturbing news. My master and friend had foretold of some strange happenings and we must meet at once! Blah blah blah... sincerely, King Mickey." Riku covered his face with his hand in embarrassment because of Sora's casual attitude towards their King. Mickey didn't seem to mind, though, since he nodded. His face became more serious._

_"You got it. The thing is, I find that our discussion will be kept more confidential in my study room. Come," he turned on his heels, raising his hand to show he wanted them to follow him. Riku nodded toward Sora, who gave him the same look. Both Donald and Goofy readied themselves to follow._

_"Right, let's go." The two teenage boys and their mouse king were about to make their way towards the King's office door when the Queen raised her voice._

_"Now excuse me! I think you're forgetting something, Mickey." her stern but soft tone stopped the King straight in his tracks. The Queen pointed towards Laura like a mother to her child. All five boys turned their attention towards her. Laura's cheeks became slightly pink in embarrassment. She never liked to be the center of such serious attention. The king broke the small silence._

_"Oh, shucks, I'm so distracted, I apologise!" he made his way over towards Laura, taking both her hands into his. _

_"Oh, well, I, um, err-" He began to shake her hands rather enthusiastically, which caused her cheeks to turn a darker shade of pink. She stammered quickly in lack of knowledge of what to say._

_"I've been waiting to meet you! It's quite a surprise to see you join our plans so soon!" She gave him a confused, wide-eyed look but he simply smiled and continued. _

_"So! This is..." he looked up toward her, moving to her side so that she was once again in everyone's path of attention._

_"Um, my name is Laura, s-sir. Laura Letterwood from Manhattan." she bowed toward him hesitantly. He gave her a reassuring smile. Kairi and the queen gave each other looks that displayed their thoughts of men and their ignorance._

_"Well, miss Laura, you need to come with us! We have much to talk about." and with that, King Mickey lead Laura along with the four others into his office with a quick shut of the door. Kairi turned to the Queen, worried._

_"Oh, Minnie..." The Queen raised her glance towards the ceiling, her gloved hand covering her eyes._

_"Oh, my dear, you have no idea."_

* * *

The darkness is perfectly capable of destroying a person, even down to their last shred of hope. It is extremely difficult for a person to keep mental stability when holding 'control' of the darkness. Like the light, its power is derived from an infinite plain of energy, yet factors unknown give the use of darkness a completely different experience. People find themselves wanting more. They strive and greed for the power. They find themselves on a higher level than their peers. Soon after they find that the original power they thought to seek is no longer enough. It's that feeling that drove him to the point of giving into Xehanort's heartless and succumbing to the seductive call of the darkness.

It sickened him to look back on the horrible things he had done to both people and worlds alike. He took hearts away to satisfy his possessed greed and destroyed countless worlds. It was all that was asked of him by his 'master', yet it made him feel like an abomination even then as he walked the open moonlit hallway.

Locks of straight, blonde hair caught him out of his trance.


	15. Call me crazy, but

**So, yet another chapter. Cool! I'm liking this pace. **

**I only own Laura and this story.**

* * *

Locks of straight, blonde hair caught him out of his trance.

He hesitated; he hadn't expected her to be out and about at two in the morning, especially considering her overwhelming series of events. Any normal person would have embraced the familiar comfort of sleep; it would've been the only familiar feeling she could have possibly had at that point. Yet there she was, alone, seemingly unable to sleep through the night.

She sat on the large white railing dividing the balcony hallway from the lush green courtyard below. He chuckled at the fact that she wasn't in nightclothes, reminding him of himself. She even still wore her peculiar but attractive orange shoes that so strangely matched the persimmon dress Kairi had donated to her. The clear moonlight reflected upon her hair. He hadn't really paid attention to her appearance in the days before, but appreciated the look of her almost platinum blonde hair and how the moon accented it into an angelic glow.

But that feeling. It was the same feeling as two of the same ends of a magnet. They were not meant to be close to each other, and that's the force he felt each time he was even in the same ten foot proximity of her. What the King had guessed about her had suprised him, but that could've been a probable explanation as to why he felt that way. Darkness still lingered around him. He couldn't help it, but it was never a large enough amount radiated that could ever pose as a threat to anyone around him. That must've been the explanation for his feelings...

It seemed to Riku that she had either not noticed him yet, which was probable since he had been walking in the shadowed half of the balcony-hallway, or she had simply decided not to bother him on his walk. He assumed the reason to be the first that came to mind, and he slowly continued his path toward the balcony. He stopped in his tracks behind her in the shadows.

"Can't sleep either, huh?" Her statement was followed by a short silence. He gulped. For some reason, he almost felt as if he was being caught sneaking about.

"I'm just restless." He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned his body toward her back. He felt like walking toward her but it was like something held him back. She began gently swinging her legs back and forth over the ledge.

"Does it happen a lot?" he looked down toward the ground, shuffling his foot once against the ground.

"Yeah."

"At least I'll have some company out here. I didn't think anyone else would be up." Hesitant, he warily walked his way over towards her. He carefully leaned onto the thick white railing beside her to her right. She looked up toward the night sky.

"I couldn't really get a grasp of what space travel's really like since I was so agitated on the gummiship - that's what it's called, right?" He looked up toward the stars as well, and nodded. His silvery hair reflected the moon's light ever so perfectly. Laura studied how silvery his hair really was from the corner of her eye, making sure he didn't notice.

"It's pretty fun once you get the hang of it. There are a lot of rules and other tips you have to remember, but it's fun." she gave a small, short "hm", and stopped swinging her legs.

"You sure can see a lot of stars from here. The fact that orbs of bright burning substances hang suspended in space amazes me." he looked toward her with a concerned look.

"That's what you think they are?"

"Well, yeah, that's what we're taught in school. _A star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma held together by gravity_." She recited the definition she'd once seen in her textbook. Her memory sometimes surprised her. He shook his head with a smile on his face.

"Every 'star' you see in the sky is actually another world, Laura. Every one of them." she gave a small laugh and gave him a look.

"What? That's impossible and makes no sense. Why would they shine so brightly?" he did not reply. Instead, he took her arm and placed her hand over her heart.

"That's why. It's the light in peoples' hearts that make the heart of their world shine." her cheeks turned a pale shade of pink, but she brushed it off once he retracted his hand. She laughed with a hint of disbelief.

"Hah... In their hearts, huh?" her mind drew back to her conversation with the King.

* * *

_"You see, Laura, I find it that the power of light brought you to Sora, Riku and Kairi. It saw in their hearts that you could trust them!" Laura fell back into the chair, her face blank from complete confusion. She was so far gone from their ramblings about hearts, the light, the darkness, heartless, nobodies and some organization that the room around her began to spin._

_"Sometimes when a world begins to fade to darkness, the light will find people who hadn't given into the darkness, and offer them a different path." Sora nodded towards Riku._

_"Yeah! That's what had happened with Kairi and I. We found our way to different worlds." Riku flinched slightly at Sora's comment. He knew it wasn't Sora's fault to have been slightly ignorant towards his best friend. _

_"So you're saying that I have some sorta connection with the light, am I right? And this light energy chose me out of my world?" Mickey smiled and gave a quick nod._

_"Yup! You're absolutely right." she covered her eyes with her hands and slumped down the chair so that half of her back stayed onto the seat, her legs supporting her, bent. Riku watched in amusement. He had expected the usual stiff candidate to save a world, yet it was almost as if the news had physically caused her body to melt._

_"But why? Why me? I'm just some girl! I can't swing a sword, or keyblade, or whatever, or fight, or kill heartless or nothings-" sora corrected her._

_"Nobodies." one of her hands extended toward Sora as if to display how unlikely a candidate she thought she was._

_"-_Nobodies_, or anything like that! So why me?" Mickey tread over towards her, pushing her knees so that she sat up straight. This wasn't the end result since she slumped her back forward, resting on her knees via her elbows. Sora and Riku decided to 'intervene' in this situation._

_"I bet you've got some hidden moves or something in you somewhere! Like some crazy kung-fu moves, like Mu- laaaa - er, some movie i saw." he decided to hold his tongue about other words for now. Riku nudged his best friend with a mischievous grin._

_"Yeah, I mean look at Sora - without the Keyblade, he might was well be a sitting duck."_

_"Hey! Seriously! This is my dignity on the line! I'm the Keyblade masta." Riku laughed, leaning on his friend's head for support. Sora truly resented his best friend's height advantage._

_"Knock it off! Why don't you go hide in some darkness or something?" _

_"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you, Mr. Sun?" the three teens' laughter was cut short by the King's clearing of his throat. _

_"Laura, we're just not sure of what you're capable of. It's a coincidence that my master saw ya comin', since I was originally going to write to Sora and Riku to meet him anyway." Laura blinked, not sure of what to say. Her creative river of thought had already run dry._

_'This King has someone higher than him? What _IS_ this place?'_

_Sora and Riku exchanged more serious looks. Riku knew, in a way, what their King was talking about._

* * *

Laura retracted her hand from her heart. It was odd that she was believing every bit of what would've otherwise been hogwash that came out of these peoples' mouths. It was all so different from what she'd thought to be common knowledge in her world. Space, galaxies, planets, other countries, traveling by plane, foreign people, trade between countries, even other cities. Was that all not true?

"Every heart radiates light at some point in their life." she turned to him, concerned.

"What do you mean, at some point? Queen Minnie told me that every heart has at least a little bit of light in it, no matter what." he quietly exhaled nasally, turning himself to face the shadows of the wall behind them. He crossed his arms, not responding. After a few seconds, she sighed, once again looking up at the sky.

"I didn't mean for that to be offensive. You know," she began, sliding herself swiftly around the railing and down to the ground, "you have a lot more to you than meets the eye. Am I right?"

He shot her a half-embarrassed look, which turned to a surprised one once she began to walk towards his original destination, the balcony. He once again hesitated, feeling the heavy feeling in his chest, but decided to ignore it for longer and follow her.

"I suppose. I feel that you're the same way."

"So why're you following me, anyway? I thought of you to be the silent, 'leave-me-alone' type."

"Maybe I'm a different person tonight." His conscience shook his head. Why was he saying this? It was totally out of character.

'I'm not flirty...'

"Oh, that's cool, then." he was taken slightly aback when she brushed off his move. "Me too. I never go for walks this early in the morning, but then again, when have I ever been on another world?" Riku smirked. It seemed to her that she wasn't actually the helpless, ditzy girl he had thought of her as before. They both looked out toward the night sky on their way to the balcony.

"So, what do you think? It's not so bad on other worlds, is it?" Laura scratched her knuckles, fidgeting.

"Until about a week ago, I'd never given the idea of other worlds much thought. But this world makes me feel much different. It's full of life and full of something that just makes me feel refreshed."

"That's how most people feel inside Disney Castle. It's full of light."

"Light, huh?"

"Yeah." Laura halted, looking toward her palms facing her. Riku, a few feet in front of her, noticed she had stopped and turned to face her.

"What's wrong?"

"The King and Queen of this castle told me that I'm full of light, but I can't see any light in me at all... Only the moonlight reflecting off of me." he gave her a smirk, walking over toward her. One thing he noticed the most about her was her inability to make eye contact, almost ever. Riku pointed toward his heart, and she looked up, observing his hand.

"It's all in here. When the time comes, you'll see it. And when you do," he turned around to once again embark on their destination, "I'll see what you're capable of." Laura ran up to catch up to him, matching his pace. She resented his long legs compared to her shorter ones, but it wasn't much of a problem for her to keep up.

"Oh, really? Well, I'd like to see what you Keyblade warriors are all about, anyway!" The silver-haired boy laughed at her novice determination. He knew very well that she would not last even five seconds against him.

"Yeah, yeah." There was a long pause of silence as they walked on and reached the balcony at the end of the hallway. He watched Laura's satifaction of the view from the balcony. She walked calmly over toward the curved railing, leaning onto it via her arms. He joined her to her right.

"So you say that your world was full of darkness. How's that?"

Talking about the darkness made him feel safe and reassured. It was the cause of all of his pain yet it seemed so comforting. To what extent did he hate the darkness, though? It easily corrupts those who desire it, but at some times he felt in complete control of the power he once wielded. It picked him up, giving him the strength to continue forward. But her...

He scrunched his nose slightly at an itch. He could feel a different feeling coming off of her. In its own way it was warm and inviting, wishing to comfort his confused mind. It called to him during their stay at his own house, while she slept peacefully in his guest room. He desired the feeling, yet when his emotions stirred it repulsed him, driving him back with her glorious aura. It wished for him to stay close yet it repulsed him with all of its might. Could such infinite planes of power possess such conflicted judgements?

Laura shifted slightly, her white nightgown rolling in the warm wind.

"Nothing was ever what it seemed. A happy neighborhood was overrun by thieves and murder. My high school full of creepy teachers and guys who only thought about sex," Riku blushed slightly,looking away at trees in the distance, "girls who were always jealous, family who-"

She caught herself, holding her tongue. Another pause ensued and Riku became slightly concerned.

"A family who...?" Laura turned her back toward the balcony, walking off rather quickly and stiffly. This suprised Riku, since she'd been so casual before then. Something had either seriously spooked her, or she had been hiding something from him.

"Hey, wait!" She did not answer, but she simply quickened herself to a running pace. He darted after her, afraid she'd get lost in the large maze-like castle.

"Why can't you just calm down and talk to me?" he shouted towards her extremely elusive figure. She hadn't been this nimble on the island. The drawback that the sand gave to his own pace back on the islands came to his mind, but she couldn't have suffered from it this much.

He stopped in his tracks, almost doubled over panting once he realised that she hadn't been in he hall he'd followed her into. It made no sense. At first she did not seem to be in much shape compared to the shape Riku and Sora were in, but this elusive chase more than proved him wrong.

'Now she's gone... What do I do?'


	16. Save me

**Hey guys, yeah it's been bloody forever but I'm starting to change this story a little bit. Due to my lack of writing, I'm sure you'll enjoy this chapter! **

**I do not own any Kingdom Hearts or Disney-affiliated characters. I do own Laura and this story idea though! **

* * *

Laura slammed the door to her guest room shut behind her as she haplessly made her way to the empty white sheeted guest bed. She slouched into it, slowly pulling the sheets over her shoulders before turning to face away from the door, and towards the window beside the bed. She gazed at the moon that looked so similar to her own she could recall so well. Those many sleepless first nights at Adam's took their toll on her memories, long hours awake and alone forever burned into them.

"Mom..." Her mother was forever gone. Gone into the ground, away from the gift of life that seemed, to Laura, to be filled with the haunting realisation that it is sometimes lived alone... Despite the new-found people around her, the magical animals; they were not familiar to her. Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Mickey... Riku. The mention of their names did not place a weight in her chest quite like his. Why did his name bring shivers across her scalp and spine? The feeling was soon to be discovered as familiarity. Empathy.

Tears welled up in her eyes. "So what. So what if he sympathizes with me... It... it doesn't mean anything. I'm still on my own."

Riku silently listened to her soft voice, so pained in tone. It took all of his strength to remain in the shadow of the wall untouched by the moon's light and to not approach her. There he remained, tense and quiet. He knew very well that she was speaking of him and his unspoken understanding of her situation.

Laura closed her eyes and took the sheets in her fists, bringing them up to cover the lower half of her face. Her voice began to weaken, tears beginning to flow out and down her cheeks onto the bedsheets.

"This all had to happen one after another. Year after year, something else. So dark..." Her throat closed up as she tried to hold her mad desire to cry out. She remained silent for a few moments before quiet sobs emerged.

Riku flinched at the sight of her saddened, broken state. He watched as her upper body moved so weakly to the sound of her cries, and as she pulled a pillow toward her. He felt her squeeze it in a desperate emulation of safety in such unfamiliar surroundings.

It was all too surreal. His heart cried a tie to a mirror image of what his body had wanted to exert many upon many times, yet never had the power to. She could let it all out, unlike his own decrepit habit of holding all of his anger and frustration inside. It made his mind race to the darkness in his heart that he had given so much effort to quell.

"I have no light. That king was wrong... How could I when all I'm surrounded by is dark-" his involuntary movement toward her snapped his mind back to reality, and his heart lifted to his throat as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Laura, I..." She jolted from the hand placed on her arm and the concerned voice, yet did not move to face the person whom the hand and voice belonged to. Riku exhalled, regaining the confidence he had momentarily lost, and moved Laura to face him. His gaze was met momentarily with hers, full of shock, which soon became embarrassment as she cupped her hands over her face with a groan.

"Oh, god, you don't want to see me like this, just forget it, I-"

"Hey." Riku interrupted her rambling, moved her hands from her face, and onto her stomach. Moving her pillow from beside her to support her back, she sat up, still embarrassed. He noticed that once again her gaze had left his, and had moved down to his hand that supported him beside her. Despite this he kept his eyes on hers, intent that eye contact was important in trying to read her.

"Why did you run away from me like that?" Laura could feel his genuine concern for her well-being from his troubled tone. Similar to Adam's, yet different somehow. What was it?

She kept her gaze on his hand beside her. Despite his amusement for her committment to refuse eye contact to have been more than slightly out of context for the moment, he couldn't help but to try and take Sora's advice to brighten a situation.

"You know, if you keep avoiding eye contact with someone, they'll think that there's something wrong with them." He accepted victory when he watched a small smile creep across her lips, yet her gaze remained sound.

"If you could walk a day in my shoes, you'd know how I feel right here, right now..." Her answer that danced around his question caused him to frown slightly. Her eyes travelled from his hand up his arm to his chest, where scars peeked out from his plain white v-necked shirt. They caught her attention, and seemed to speak to her eyes of vigour and sinister events. She could sense the darkness that waited within him.

"Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, you... You're all around me now, making me not necessarily alone, but you would know anyways, wouldn't you? Even then, it's not the same." he gasped at her remark. He knew what she was going to say next.

"You know what it's like to lose everything you love." Riku clenched the sheets in his fist at her added reply. With his other hand he then took hers and placed it over his heart. Laura felt an overwhelming wave of pressure against her heart. It was as if the darkness within his was pushing against her in an attempt to repel her hand from his chest.

"Doesn't it scare you? My darkness?" His sudden direct question caught her off guard, as did his sudden urge to show her his heart. He expected her to retract her hand from his chest in repulsion and disgust, yet it still remained. She closed her eyes and gave him a slow shake of her head. "I know what it's like."

Her answer made his lungs feel heavy and unable to retain air, causing him to be hard of breath. His sudden urge to throw his darkness out into exposure to such a stranger became overwhelming... and that this stranger seemed to peer inside of him fearlessly to the darkness kept locked within made it all the more unbearable. Yet there he stayed. The instinct to run away and hide was not present this time around.

He found himself bringing his own gaze to hers this time. He placed his hand over hers over his chest, and wrapped his fingers around it firmly. She watched it happen, unsure of the gesture. She had always hindered that variety of human contact, yet she knew he wasn't going to let go.

"Funny how it feels, when you find someone that's felt just like you." her breath became a small bit heavier for a moment as he finally replied to her. His gaze moved from their hands, to her eyes, and over to the hand that supported him moving to her other side that faced the window. Laura watched as he stayed suspended over her, hardly noticing his body slowly lowering to hers.

"Riku..." His breath danced around her lips and the tip of her nose, his silvery hair beginning to mesh with her blonde waves unravelling from their formerly straight disposition on the bed. His mind began to become consumed with the feeling of familiarity, his body becoming intoxicated by her small breath against his slightly parted lips.

This was something he lacked, something he never knew. Something he was curious of, something he craved... yet within the darkness he knew no comfort or safety to allow such an opportunity. Her chest rose and fell with nervous air and he could sense the tension in the short and warm air between them. The short distance was as close as he's ever been in a long time...

Which he quickly closed.

Laura exhaled in surprise as his lips tenderly met hers, her hand dropping to her chest and his to her other side. He held himself above her still, shifting his legs to be on either side of hers over top of the blankets that confined her. He began another kiss after inhaling for air.

Riku felt through their second kiss two strong feelings within her heart: comforting warmth and intensity. Both welcomed his call, yet stood so differently and separately from each other. Ending the kiss, he stared into her eyes, once again allowing each other to feel their breaths. Her eyes finally met his.

Her lips were parted, and were attempting to find words to communicate to him. She was calm compared to before, he could sense it - he'd led her away from the darkness attempting to seize her emotional weakness. Biting her lip and closing her eyes for a moment, she opened them again and placed her hands on his forearms.

"I feel slightly... relieved, Riku..." He exhaled through a smile at her remark, his gaze toward his chest.

"You're not the only one. Laura, I... I hope-"

His mumbling was halted by her movement toward him. Laura wanted to erase any doubt within him of whether or not he was needed by her. She moved a hand to his cheek and moved in for another kiss, much deeper than the first or second. This act having provoked him, he pressed his body against hers, moving more and more into the kiss. The feelings he felt of safety and belonging exerted by his being so close to Laura at that moment were taking him over, rendering his body unable to respond to his nervous wreck of a mind... safe for the slight shaking of his body.

Laura felt as if his heart was becoming connected to hers, all of their emotions, hopes and fears conjoining together. She felt his constant need to detach himself from all others in fear of the worst of his darkness causing harm to those closest to him. She felt the fear of the darkness approaching as a threat and the fear of becoming succumbed to it, and kissed him deeply once again to quell them, for now.

She attempted to temporarily wash away his worry by pouring in her warmth and comfort into his heart, which in turn caused him to exhale deeply as they kissed again and again. It was working, and in turn caused her to feel safer and wanted in a world full of strange.

For once, she'd felt accomplished and sure of herself. She was also sure that he wasn't leaving her room any time soon.

* * *

**Once again sorry for the hiatus... Crazy life stuff. So, what are your thoughts? Things obviously escalate in real life all the time, so why not incorporate some maturity into my series... Yay or nay?**

****** Remember to give me feedback! **


	17. Scratching One of Many Surfaces

**So I just realized that I totally screwed up two chapters ago with Riku explaining the concept of worlds to Laura... where it was already explained in chapter 9! I'm working on fixing that. Bad, bad, bad. Anyways, here's the next chapter! I promise the story will get moving after this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I only own Laura and this story.**

* * *

A shadowed, hooded figure tread down an old alley, accompanied by silver blades laced with red scraped along narrow walls. The circular chakrams which the blades belonged to were diced around back and forth as their owner grew more and more impatient with his search.

"This was the place. I was finally lost here... but where?" The cloaked man ruffled his hood, half expecting long red spikes of hair to react to the action. He emerged from the alleyway to find himself in a large sandlot, abandoned for the night. Trying to grasp at an idea, he grabbed the shadow of where his face should have been in frustration.

"I just don't remember... Think, think, think! What happened then?" the act of recalling his memories racked his lack of being so. The thought of being reduced to a bodiless shell tormented him to great extent. Now alongside his inability to remember, it only worked to worsen his anger.

"I don't have time for this! Why can't I just remember..." After a great deal of mental torment, he found a shard of confidence within himself at the concept of a large place that appeared within his mind. A gate appeared with a wall, encompassing the large area.

"A large place? What's that supposed to mean? Was that where I lost myself? Wait..." His mind seemed to drift back to a voice that rung in his head like chiming bells. It was his voice, a figment trapped in a version of the large place kept within his memories.

_"You really DO remember me this time? I'm so FLATTERED!" _

His own words of anger flew into his mind, rushing back a vaguely shaped picture of raging flames that surrounded him. A boy stood before him, an intricate weapon in each hand: one emanating pure light, the other, opaque as a shadow.

_"_Those Keyblades... auuugh! What the hell!_" _the hooded man stood silent for a moment before groaning in frustration, holding his head with both hands.

"Are you lost?" a suspicious voice called out behind him.

Once he turned around, he was met with two teenage boys. One stood up tall and confidently with wavy blonde hair pointing backward. The other stood slightly behind him, slouched, out of shape with black hair piled up by a headband. The man's first instinct was to turn and run, yet he recognized their statures. They were part of the gang that _he_ made friends with. This could work to his advantage. Could they jog his memory?

The two distinct weapons disappeared from his hands, earning even more suspicious looks from the two boys. The man cleared his throat, and regained composure.

"Uh, yeah, actually... I'm looking for a large place. Somewhere big, around... here?" the man gestured the concept of big and large with his arms, encompassing the space around him. The pudgy boy found this to be slightly comical, and stood up straighter with confidence to reply.

"Oh, you mean the big mansion over-" the taller boy quickly covered the pudgy boy's mouth, silencing him.

"Hey now, hold on a sec - why do you ask? Who are you anyways?" the taller boy became quite inquisitive, which served as more fuel for the hooded figure's growing frustration. He tried to keep calm with a sigh.

"I'm asking the questions here. To be honest, dude, who I am is none of your business. Just tell me where this mansion is... got it memorized?" the two boys exchanged glances, finding the catchphrase to be familiar. The man was losing his patience. The tall boy gave him a glare.

"Fine, let's say that I'm looking for someone, and that someone is currently waiting for me in a large place. Maybe that mansion? Come on. Help a poor guy out here!"

"Hayner... Why don't you just tell him so that he goes away?" the stout boy complained, scratching the back of his neck to quell the hairs that were raising on it. The air around them began to change temperature dramatically, before it subsided once the man rubbed his hooded head.

"Pence..." Hayner growled. He did not enjoy that he wasn't getting his way or the answers he wanted from the strange figure.

"Yeah, I wanna go away, too, Hayner. All you gotta do is just point me in that lovely direction." the man began tapping his foot impatiently. He began to approach the two boys. Pence gulped, taking a few steps back. Hayner stood his ground, his fists clenching and ready at his sides.

"Look, kids, I don't have a lot of time. This case is time-sensitive, okay? You, short and stout. Mind showing me the way?" Pence sighed and pointed over the man's shoulder toward some stairs in the distance.

"See those stairs? Umm... take them upward and keep to your right. Pass the trams and walk up the ramp to a broken wall. There's an alley... that m-might be blocked off that will bring you to a forested area..." Pence trailed off, slightly intimidated by the man slowly approaching them both. Hayner picked up the slack.

"Go through the fores,t following the trail, and you'll come up to the mansion. It's haunted, so good luck, buddy. Now leave us alone!" He took a step back to turn around and run away. Pence stumbled and ran away behind him.

"H-hayner! Wait for me!"

The man sighed in ease of his questions having been answered. He was grasping at a small amount of certainty: he now had a destination.

"I've found you now, baby, I've found you."

* * *

Laura opened her eyes slowly, careful not to injure them from the glimmering sunlight entering her room from her window. It covered every inch of the lightening guest room, shutting out all possible shadow. She began to understand the concept of the light's power in the castle; it seemed to consume every inch of space in the daytime. The white walls and brightly coloured comical trim and tiles were only more complimented by the sun's shining light, glimmering with great pride. It made the castle all the more welcoming to her.

Looking to her left, she noticed strands of silver that belonged to a certain boy beside her, still fast asleep. She smiled.

'Guess he's not used to waking up with the sun.'

She carefully and silently got herself up and out of her bed, making sure she hadn't woken him. It only took her a second to realize the circumstance of his presence in her room, still, from last night before nearly inducing a seizure from panic. He was still in her room. From last night. She allowed him to kiss her after no more than two days. They slept in the same bed. She mentally kicked herself, hard, but sighed in relief once she took a fistful of her white nightdress. With clothes on.

'What... had happened?'

Last night, she ran back to her room, upset, frantic, confused, frustrated, homesick, alone... But he followed her. He comforted her, and showed her a small glimpse of what lay waiting within him. He...

Laura blushed slightly, grazing her fingertips down her lips. Coming to the conclusion that nothing out of context had happened, she allowed her shoulders to slowly lower from their tensed state. She hadn't ever experienced a feeling quite like she had the previous night. Through their kisses she had vaguely felt all of his fears and reservations of his darkness, as well as a darkness he knew all too well. It confused her how strong the forces of light and darkness were to the people (and animals) she had very recently met.

Their sudden and intense connection had made her mind banish her fears and ill memories of her dark past. He made her forget about her father. He never left her mind at any time before then.

Making her way to the small bathroom connected to her room, she found a brush and ran it gently through her now wavy, tousled hair. Something was coming, and to have shaken his core as it did the night before, it wasn't something she could have taken so lightly. Her mind then continued toward what his Majesty had revealed to her the day before: her light.

Light was always a concept affiliated with the greater good, or divinity on her home world. It wasn't something any mortal could obtain; it was absolute and it was the higher governing power to religious groups. Religion would affiliate an almighty being to the concept of light yet that never made enough sense for Laura. How could they be so certain? What if it was just... a source of power? A side of a pole?

Placing her hand on her heart and closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and concentrated on the concept of light in a heart. After waiting for several seconds, she felt nothing.

Sighing in failure, she fixed her bobby pins pinning her long bangs to the side. She took a disapproving glance at her plain white nightdress. Giving herself a quick turn-around in front of the mirror, she decided it was time to seek out some real clothes.

'Maybe I'll find out soon.'

"Uhh..."

Laura jumped at the stupefied sound from behind her and turned around immediately to find that Riku had awoken. Her mind immediately rushed back to the events of the previous night, which caused her body to freeze up in an awkward state of panic. Riku simply sat there, as the two exchanged blank and embarrassed looks. Riku was the first to budge, moving his hand to his head to scratch it.

"So, um... how... are you - I mean, well, Good... morning?" Laura could tell that waking up in a stranger's guest bed wasn't a common procedure for him. She was just as unfamiliar as he was with the whole concept, and managed to gulp out a reply.

"Oh, you know, I'm.. uh, good... Good morning?" she nervously shifted in place on the other side of the larger-than-average guest room, weaving her fingers together and inching her knees back and forward.

Riku nodded, swallowing. "That's good... I think." A few more moments of silence ensued.

"SO! It's morning, so we should probably..."

Riku nodded a few more times, getting up in a jittery manner towards the door. "We should probably meet up with everyone else in the hall..."

Laura joined into the nodding game, gesturing toward the door acknowledgingly, "Definitely! Sure! Yeah, let's do it - I mean, let's go," and as she went in front of him to open the door, he caught hold of her hand from behind her. Once again she froze.

'Oh, no... What am I going to say-'

"Laura..." inside, Laura wanted to disappear. All of her thoughts of panic, and unfamiliarity, and boy rules that she'd broken ran rampant through her mind and conscience. It also dawned on her that he had been her first kiss. Combined together it made her want to spontaneously combust into a hopeless pile of ashes.

"Laura, before we go, I want to talk about last night." she stood the same way, still frozen half in fear and in shyness to the touchy subject.

"Sure, what's to talk about?"

"Well, you know, I just wanted to say..." Laura closed her fingers around his hand firmly, as if to gain some confidence leverage.

"Thank you, Riku."

He turned Laura to face him. He stood a full head above her, forcing Laura to look up to his eyes. She then noticed that at the angle she stood, standing so close to him, his eyes were completely free of his long silver bangs.

"There's... no need to thank me. It calmed me down, too. It was like..." Riku paused, looking up toward the ceiling in attempt to think up a proper metaphor to describe how he felt. Laura pitched in.

"Like... discovering sliced bread for the first time!" she slimed a toothy grin, feeling proud of her metaphor - accurate to her, yet Riku gave her a stupefied look.

"Huh? Sliced bread... But you can do that yourself." she scoffed, insulted.

"What are you _talking_ about? It saves sooooo much time in the morning! Like one whole minute of sandwich making time. You know what? Forget it," she huffed, turning her back to him and extending her arm to open the door.

"It's a Manhattan thing, you wouldn't get it anyways!" she taunted, quickly running out of the door and down the hallway.

Riku sighed, completely confused. "Sliced bread... hey! Get back here!"

Riku began to run after Laura, darting down the hallway. Her speed baffled him. He had been monitoring her general capability compared to him and Sora, even Kairi, who had been exposed to more-than-minor dangers here and then. Compared to Kairi, Laura's endurance and stamina had increased twofold to his fellow Redhead.

Compared to Sora's growth, she was about on-par in terms of improvement, yet he couldn't entirely judge between himself, Sora and Laura since he'd never seen her fight. On their island she could barely hold her own in the forest during a storm, yet two days later she could sprint to no end.

Turning the corner, he had to struggle to catch up with her light-footed speedy pace. Laura had mentioned to him about having participated in sports on her homeworld, something called Hockey - the name seemed too womanly to him for much interest to spark. If she were to wield, he'd imagined her fighting style to be focused on agility and acrobatics -

'Whoa, whoa, whoa. Laura, wield a Keyblade? Get real, Riku.'

He chuckled to himself as he swung himself around a pole to tackle the blonde via a cut corner, leaping toward her with arms wide open. As he closed the distance between them (in an unadulterated manner), he trapped her torso in his arms and dove over the railing and into the courtyard below. Laura shrieked his name the entire way downward while he laughed and gave a loud "woo!" in accomplishment.

Together, Sora and Kairi watched the event unfold from the other side of the courtyard's overlook on their own way to the hall. Sora store in pure disbelief toward his normally cool and collected friend, while Kairi store towards Sora.

"Wow, uhh... well, then. That was something." Sora pushed his jaw upward back into place, and Kairi smiled and shook her head. Her mind remained bewildered but her heart felt warm at the sight of the golden haired girl and her silver haired friend crashing into a carefully cut hedge of a hippopotamus.

"She's perfect."

Sora turned to face her. "What do you mean?"

Giving him a peek of her tongue, she skipped away toward the hall. "Come on, we're going to be late! Let's go," Kairi sang brightly as he ran after her, flustered. Laura and Riku could be heard in the courtyard laughing together, having rolled out of the hedge and onto the grass below.

"Kairi, not you, too! I'm always in the dust..."


	18. Fitting Discussions

**Okay! New Chapter... yay, I'm finally going somewhere with this! How exciting. Keep in tune, I'll have pictures of outfits linked this weekend in my profile description.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts Story. I do, however, own Laura and this idea. **

* * *

"Folks, today we head out to speak to my master, Master Yen Sid," Mickey declared to the six individuals before him. Both Riku and Sora nodded confidently, fully aware of the severity of the cause of the meeting with the wise wizard. "This may be the toughest challenge we've faced yet, and I want everyone to know that none of us have to face Xehanort and his plans alone." his tone had made it clear to Laura that great danger ensued the events concluding their meeting with this wizard. Her ears and body hummed from the tense state of her nerves.

Sora took a step forward, his fist held in front of him. "We're never alone. As long as we have each other," releasing his fist slightly as if to grab onto something, a beam of light shone into his hand forming a key-like sword, "and the Keyblade, Xehanort can think twice about submitting the worlds to his darkness!"

Laura watched in amazement at her new-found friend's ability. It seemed as if it had taken no effort for Sora to summon the mighty weapon that radiated a sense of righteousness and excitement she had never before felt. It echoed into her core, giving her a new-found boost of confidence.

"The Keyblade..."

Riku gave a short "hmm!" and with a small sleight of hand raised upward to his head's level, his elbow behind him, summoned his own weapon in a shroud of dark energy. It resembled a bat wing stretched out to its extremity, with a smaller grey-feathered wing near its edge. The hilt was surrounded by winged hand guards, one emanating darkness as another bat wing, the other emanating light as a creamy-white bird's wing.

"Another one..."

She noted its difference in appearance from Sora's Keyblade, which appeared as a simple silver key with a gold hand guard. Both were donned small key chains at the ends, Sora's possessing a key chain that resembled Mickey, Riku's resembling a black heart outlined with deep red. Riku gave Laura a small smirk, lowering his weapon to his side. Sora followed suit, giving Riku a look of pure confidence... and mischief. Laura could sense their rivalry. Mickey gave a small chuckle of excitement and approval at the summoning of their weapons.

"With confidence like that, it's no wonder that we've remained so strong together. Never forget that, everyone!" Mickey seemed to direct his last statement toward his silver-haired friend, which made him smile a warm, genuine smile. This made Laura feel the comfort being expressed from his heart.

In the past few days, she had grown to notice how much more in tune she had become with the feelings of others around her. Were these some of the workings of the heart? The worlds she had visited thus far had caused her to live and breathe so much differently than in her home world. In Manhattan, people on the streets seemed to simply disappear into the crowds, melding together as one gigantic uniform entity. Once she had arrived onto the larger island that made up the majority of the Destiny Islands, the entire town and marketplace emanated happiness and togetherness.

Everyone's hearts had the desire to work together, transcending into a positive community. In Disney Castle, even the walls leaked success and prosperity. The King and Queen radiated together, giving off invisible auras of glimmer and positivity. The thought had wanted her body to cringe from so much 'happy', yet instead it made her feel so alive. So needed.

"Wow..." Laura was truly impressed by their prowess combined with their confidence and sense of team. They were starting to seem like the heroes they boasted about. Sora turned to face her, excited by her positive reaction.

"Whattya think? Pretty cool to see a Keyblade up close, huh?"

Laura nodded. "Yeah, it sure is. They're so... different. I feel safe."

"Well no wonder, since you're looking at three keyblade masters! Mickey, myself, and -" Riku butted in as Sora was gesturing to the King, himself and his friend. Laura turned to Riku. Mickey gave in to a more serious disposure.

"Hold on, Sora. Not yet. That's one of the reasons that Yen Sid summoned us, isn't it, Mickey? To become true Masters?" Mickey gave a slow nod, summoning his own keyblade. It was an inversion in colouration of Sora's, with a golden sword and silver hand guard.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I would call you both 'unofficial Keyblade Masters' as you are now, but as it stands, you must both embark on a sort of trial," Mickey began, holding his key towards the three teens before him.

"Yen Sid will hold all of your answers about what kind of trial you have to complete. Basically, you'll leave the trials with new abilities and powers needed to counter whatever Xehanort's got in store for us... As well as each an official title of Keyblade Master." Laura frowned, crossing her arms.

"And what if they don't succeed?" Both Sora and Riku turned to face Laura, suprised at her sudden doubt of their ability.

"Laura..." Sora lost some of his confident disposure.

Laura sighed. "Calm down. I'm not saying you will," gesturing to both wielders. Riku gave Sora a look as if to allow Laura to continue. Her independence in speech both impressed and intrigued him. She took a step forward to the King.

"I'm just a little lost with all of this. What I do understand is that it isn't easy... But look at Sora and Riku. They can't be the only ones. Others of their ability and age have succeeded before on some other world, though, right?" Mickey gave her a quizzical smile, studying his Keyblade before him.

"I find it quite interesting that you'd come to such a conclusion already, being so new to the concept of other worlds and worldly order," he turned to have his back facing them looked up toward the ceiling.

"There was a time where an accomplished and respected master had under his guidance three apprentices: two boys, and one girl. The oldest of the trio, one of the boys, and the girl had been accepted to prove their Mark of Mastery. The two had exerted great skill and great qualifying traits during their exam - especially the girl, who had passed her trial without great difficulty. The boy, however, failed to keep control of the darkness within him, failing to make the cut."

'Terra, Aqua, Ventus.'

Each of the apprentices' names appeared in the back of her mind almost instantly at their mention by the King. This greatly disturbed Laura, linking it to her connection with Mickey's heart at that moment, but thought it wise to keep her extracted information to herself. She wasn't yet accustomed to the strange, sudden new workings of her body.

Both Sora and Riku listened intently - it was a great deal for Mickey to reveal such private events to such a newcomer. Riku began to realize the significance of the coincidence of her arrival into the picture, piecing information together, and spoke up.

"So what happened, then? Was the older boy re-admitted?" Mickey ceased to continue. He gave a great pause, followed by the lowering of his shoulders. He then let out a disappointed sigh. She could sense he did not enjoy thinking about the answer to her question.

"Welp, he ended up suffering so much because of his darkness that he could not keep inside. It ended up consuming him... The girl and the younger boy had pursued him, but to little avail. None of the three have been seen or heard of since," he concluded for her, turning back to face them. Laura knew that their small discussion of the past was quickly nearing its end. He seemed to have been leaving heaping amounts of details out of his story.

"Which is where you come in. It's been 10 years since then, and now my master Yen Sid has felt two alarming presences - one of utmost darkness, Xehanort, and one of a strange light... You, Laura."

Laura gestured to herself. "I saw my light... two nights ago, with Sora and Riku. I glowed a light when I was happy to be with them," she gestured to both of them, "and I want to know more about it. How to channel it into a power that can help you guys... in some sort of way. I know I can."

Riku placed a supportive hand on her shoulder, dismissing his keyblade. He enjoyed hearing her words of enthusiasm. More and more his opinion of her would stray from his initial first impression of her when they first met on the islands. Sora dismissed his blade and gave her a supportive smile of his own.

Mickey nodded with another happy laugh. "I know that you're meant to help, and to work together with us! I just know it. And I also know that Master Yen Sid can explain to us just how you can, and how to channel your light."

Donald began to jump up and down and quack, shaking his wizard staff about. "Which means we need to use the Gummi Ship!" he exclaimed excitedly. Laura assumed he knew a great deal about the peculiar ships. Goofy threw a fist into the air above him.

"A'hyuck, Donald's right! Everybody, follow me - er, us!" the spastic duck admired his friend's correction and quickly waddled his way toward the end of the hall, expecting everyone to follow him to his Gummi Ship. Mickey shrugged toward the teens, laughing, and Kairi joined in.

"What a crazy duck Donald is. Let's go, everyone! Oh, and Laura," she kept the blonde behind while everyone else begun to follow Donald out of the long hall.

"Let's get you a proper change of clothes."

Laura was gratefully reminded of her lovely white nightdress, now paired with an extra pair of Riku's pyjama pants for added coverage and obvious good fashion. The fantastic line of events and adventure from the courtyard they had dropped down into, to the tickling in the halls, to his own guest room to fetch them came into her mind. She gave a small embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, I like that idea. Let's go quickly."

* * *

Kairi excitedly explained the wonders of the conveniently magical wardrobe to be found in Queen Minnie's tailoring quarters in the left wing of the castle. Accidentally, Laura half-tuned her speech out due to her reflection on the conversation earlier with the King and everyone else. Why had the king so obviously leave so much supporting information and evidence out of his answers? It did not seem right to her. Someone was behind the older boy - Terra - and his inability to control the darkness within his heart. Suddenly the two girls arrived into left wing, snapping her out of her thoughts.

'That was quick. I'm such a space cadet... Maybe I'm made for Gummi Ship travel after all...'

The room seemed to be quite magical indeed, sporting magically animated broomstick servants that worked ceaselessly to create clothes and tapestries of a quality Laura could truly admire. To the left, magical workers took fabrics from a shelf near a large and cumbersome wardrobe and placed them inside upon the two girls' arrival. It was mostly white, with lavender, yellow and sky blue trim in different places. It seemed to stand confidently on four golden feet - wiggling excitedly, which gave Laura the impression that it truly was magical.

"Well, here we are... Look, there it is! Minnie's magical wardrobe," Kairi explained and brought Laura toward it. The broomstick servants courteously gave way to the two girls, allowing Kairi and Laura to stand before it.

"So what makes it magical, anyways?"

"Well, you saw how the servants placed some fabric inside of it, right?"

Laura nodded. "Yeah!"

"Well, now that it's loaded up," she grabbed each of Laura's hands and placed them on either of its doors' handles. "You place your hands on it and it creates an outfit that best represents you!"

Laura laughed in amazement. "Hey, awesome! Okay, let me see..." she closed her eyes, concentrating on pouring her self image into the wardrobe. It began to rumble slightly and emit noises of complaint, which caused Laura to jump in shock.

"Agh! What _is_ this?" Kairi laughed at her reaction, and the wardrobe ceased its rumbling. "Look, it's ready. Go ahead."

"Already? That was quick."

"Oh yeah! Try it out, Laura!" she nodded eagerly, laughing in excitement with Kairi, and opened the door.

Inside lay a very peculiar outfit on the shelves, neatly folded and organized on shelves by each type of garment. She took each piece out, one by one, examining each carefully. First she took out a comfy-looking, form-fitting 3/4 sleeve top. It had a wide-necked collar and came in a very dark blue. It was plain, but Laura was impressed. She put it aside on the table beside the wardrobe.

Kairi hummed. "Interesting! Keep going." Laura could tell her red-head friend was more than excited, and continued her findings.

She then took out another shirt which she assumed was to be layered on top of the previous shirt. It also possessed 3/4 sleeves yet they were slightly shorter and baggier, which Laura tied to proper comfy movement. The outfit seemed to be tailored for an active lifestyle, to say the least. The body of the top, a pale light creamy orange, was also loose-fitting for the same purpose. Its collar was slightly wider than the previous top with true purple trim that matched the sleeve hems and he hem of the torso. On the front of the shirt, just under the wide collar, was a seam buttoned up with two black buttons.

"Cute, but functional, too." Kairi commented. On the back of the shirt and the ousdies of the sleeves laid peculiar heart-shaped emblems, possessing three points at its end. "I wonder what that means, though...?" Laura shrugged, placing it on top of the other shirt.

"Who knows!"

She then took a pair of fancy capri-style pants from the lower shelf. They were tight fitting yet the material was flexible beyond belief. They were a dark charcoal-like colour, with four diamond shapes connected in a straight line that descended the front of each pant leg. The diamonds varied in colour, from purple on top, to light blue, to light green and lastly to yellow. The hem of the pants matched the true purple of the baggy shirt's wide collar. "Fancy!" Laura exclaimed, falling in love with the 'fancy-pants' she had acquired. Kairi agreed.

Taking one last look into the wardrobe, she found a plain brown belt with a plain golden buckle. She thought it to be a fine last addition to her new outfit. Taking all of her items of clothing into a neat pile in her arms, she turned to Kairi.

"Now I need to put it all on!" she made a 'b-line' for the door clearly labelled 'changing room' on the opposite end of the room. Kairi gasped, stopping Laura in her tracks rather exagguratedly.

"Wait! there's something else, Laura," she brought one last strange piece of the outfit to her. It was a type of small chest protector, with two criss-crossing yellow straps and a small silver pendant that held the two straps in place in the center. It gave off a strange aura that reminded her somehow of the apprentices mentioned by Mickey.

"How weird, but I bet it's important... These clothes also protect you, you know!" Laura took a step back.

"Huh? From what, exactly?" Kairi gave her an evil, mischievous smile.

"From monsters. You know, heartless, nobodies... Evil men named Riku." Laura nodded understandingly at the first two threats, but gave her a look at the last.

Kairi gave her a huge smile. "Think of it... as a chastity belt!" Kairi began to laugh uncontrollably at her own joke, doubling over and holding her stomach. Laura groaned, her cheeks turning a bright tinge of pink.

"Oh, give it a break! You're as bad as Sora, you know! Two peas in a pod!" both began to laugh even harder together. Laura knew then that no matter how perilous the journey would become, they would still come across and look back upon golden instances of joy such as these.

* * *

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